Networks Case Study 2 (Wireless)
Introduction
Customer required 2 buildings situated across a field approximately half a kilometre away from each other to be connected for temperature control monitoring.
Overview
A large manufacturing company needed access for a low capacity connection to connect to a computer monitoring station based inside a test facility. It controlled the buildings heating system which had to be kept at a certain temperature at all times.
The most direct and obvious route was split by a field they did not own nor could they get permission to run a cable.
The building was designed like Faraday's Cage which meant radio signals could not penetrate it.
Implementation
Due to the fact we couldn’t pass radio waves through the buildings we installed reinforced steel poles on the roof of each building and ran cables from the poles to the internal network and monitoring station PC.
On top of each pole we rigged 2 high end outdoor wireless access points and pointed them at each other which formed the extended network.
The access points worked up to 1 foot either side of the position it was fixed in. If the wind caught the poles it wouldn’t make a difference to the quality of the signal and the data would be constant.
We also tested the system with someone stood in front of one of the receivers in case any wildlife decided to perch on the receiver or build a nest etc.
We configured each wireless access point to encrypt all data sent to and from the monitoring station.
To make sure the system was secure the Wireless Network Key was changed on a regular basis.
