ProSoft Technology RLXIB-IHA-A - Manual (Page 89)

RLXIB-IHA ♦ 802.11a Reference
RadioLinx® 802.11a Industrial Hotspot User Manual
ProSoft Technology, Inc. Page 89 of 123
July 25, 2013
6 Reference
In This Chapter
 Product Overview .................................................................................. 89
 Radio hardware ..................................................................................... 90
 Antennas ............................................................................................... 92
6.1 Product Overview
The RLXIB-IHA is an industrial high-speed Ethernet radio. You can use it in place
of Ethernet cables to save money, extend range, and make connections that may
not otherwise be feasible. The radio operates as a wireless Ethernet switch, so
any data that you can send over a wired network can also be sent over the radio.
The RLXIB-IHA is certified for unlicensed operation in the United States, Canada
and Europe at 5 GHz. With an output power of a 250mW (typical) approved high-
gain antennas, the radios can achieve distances of 5 miles line-of-sight between
them. You can use multiple repeaters to extend this range to far greater
distances.
You can develop a highly reliable wireless network by creating redundant (page
54) wireless paths. Multiple master radios can be installed without any special
programming or control. Repeater radios can connect to any master at any time;
if one master goes down, the repeater connects to another. Likewise, if a
repeater goes down, any repeater that was connected to it can reconnect to a
different repeater, keeping the network intact. You can create large, self-healing
tree-like networks in this fashion. Fully redundant paths are possible because the
Spanning Tree (page 54) protocol in the radios disables and enables paths as
necessary to avoid Ethernet loops, which would otherwise make your network
stop functioning.
In addition to acting as a switch, every master or repeater radio in an RLXIB-IHA
wireless network can simultaneously act as an 802.11a access point. This allows
802.11 WiFi clients to connect and roam between radios for monitoring of the
wireless network or general network access. The RLXIB-IHA has a special client
mode (page 25) that allows connection of any Ethernet device to any existing
802.11a access point, regardless of the brand (An example of an 802.11 client is
a laptop with a WLAN card).
Note: WiFi is a brand name originally issued by the WiFi Alliance, used to describe the underlying
technology of wireless_local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications.