Operations Manual

OPERATIONS 4-24
O&M of the MCC-545B PACKET DATA RADIO
12/2000
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METEOR
TRAIL
IONOSPHERE
EARTHS
SURFACE
MASTER
STATION
REMOTE
STATION
EARTHS
SURFACE
Line of Sight
Meteor Burst
MASTER
STATION
PROBE
REMOTE
STATION
TRANSPOND
The Meteor Burst (MB) network is used to cover large areas. Each Master Station can cover an
area up to 1,200 miles in diameter depending on many physical and data rate requirements. Each
Master Station can support up to 3,840 Remote Stations. Typically, this type of system is used
for data acquisition where the data acquired by Remote Stations is transmitted to a Master
Station at a slow update rate. Typical update rates are usually measured in hours. The RF burst
data rate varies from 4,000 to 9,600 bits per second (depending on equipment configuration), and
the interval between bursts varies randomly from a few seconds to many minutes. The Master
Station is usually a MCC-520B, and the Remotes are a MCC-550B/C Data Acquisition Unit,
MCC-545B PACKET DATA RADIO or a combination of both.
A Line of Sight (LOS) network is used in smaller areas or when required data throughput is
higher than a Meteor Burst (MB) network can provide. The MCC-545B PACKET DATA
RADIO is used for the network Repeater and Base Master Stations. MCC-550B/C Data
Acquisition Units or MCC-545B PACKET DATA RADIOs with CR10X Data Loggers are used
for data acquisition applications and MCC-545B PACKET DATA RADIOs are used for
message and GPS location applications. Each MCC-545B that is set up as a Master Station can
operate with up to 80 other Master Stations and up to 256 Remote Stations.
The two types of networks can be combined in a seamless manner to provide both MB and LOS
capability when properly designed for optimum performance. Each of these types of networks
are discussed in the following sections.
4.8.1.1 Meteor Burst Networks
MB networks use the MCC-520B as Master Stations and are used when the Remotes are beyond
line-of-sight range from the Masters. If the area to be covered is too large for one Master
Station, then multiple Masters can be used. Depending on throughput requirements and whether
the Remote Stations need to be able to operate with only one Master or must be able to switch to
another Master during maintenance periods, there are several configurations possible. The
modes are defined by the “role” of the Master Stations and by whether they are full duplex - dual
frequency, or half duplex - single frequency as explained below.
Set up the ID first using the command: ID,MM,INIT where MM is the Master ID (1-245).