
Industrial Radio Accessories

GE’s MDS is an end-to-end industrial wireless communication provider which carries serial and IP/Ethernet traffic, as well as analog and digital I/O signals connected to field sensors and devices, accommodating an extensive variety of industrial protocols. GE’s MDS wireless radios have been rated and tested to harsh specifications and operate over licensed and unlicensed narrowband communication in a variety of frequencies. MDS radio accessories include: radio DIN rail mounts, cable assemblies, adapters, conversion kits, power supplies, filters, hand held programmers and external serial encryption assemblies.
Phoenix Contact Radioline wireless radios are ideal for large systems. The Radioline system transmits data and signals over several kilometers with devices available with a wide range of frequencies. Radioline transmits IO signals as well as serial data and is therefore very versatile. Data transmission is reliable and secure utilizing frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) and encryption according to advanced encryption standard (AES). Radioline radio accessories include: multipoint multiplexers, configurations sticks and programming cables.
Freewave radios are designed for seamless integration into networks that require reliable link performance and support low power, long range machine-to-machine communications. Freewave radios transfer data in noisy, challenging environments covering over 60+ mile distances. By utilizing Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology, Freewave provides an alternative to expensive Wi-Fi bandwidth, cellular or fiber. Freewave radios accessories include: radio DIN rail mounts, cable assemblies, adapters, filters and power supplies.
Products
Serial vs Ethernet Radios
There are many different communication protocols that can be used when selecting a radio. The type of protocol being used may depend on the application, time frame the hardware was installed, existing hardware that is already in place and many other factors. What is important to understand is that most of these protocols fall into two generic families: Serial-based protocols or Ethernet-based protocols. Examples of Serial-based protocols include: Modbus RTU, RS-232, RS-485 and Profibus. Examples of Ethernet-based protocols include: Modbus TCP, Ethernet IP and Profinet. The differences that exist in these protocols has a lot to do with data transmission speeds.
Serial-based protocols have a much more limited data transmission capacity compared to Ethernet-based protocols, however, they do not require a connection strength as strong as Ethernet-based protocols. This is beneficial in situations where the radio connection may be limited because of physical obstructions or long distances. Ethernet-based protocols have faster data transmission capabilities and are becoming much more common than Serial-based protocols. By understanding the differences between these two types of protocols, you will be better equipped to select the radio that will work best for your specific application.