I had apparently lost track of this thread. I have been busy on other projects lately that have taken priority. I have begun to look into this more again recently and the DNP3 protocol that Saffa mentioned seems doable. I am not familiar with DNP3 though.
I am very new to all of these different networking protocols, so I do not know what the best choice is. Please excuse my ignorance.
I have also had someone suggest I use encapsulated UDP. I am not sure if that is a viable option as well or not.
The only way I could see to use UDP instead of TCP just from a quick glance is to set up a Virtual LAN in the viper radio. If I am understanding what I read properly, with a Virtual LAN I could set local connections to TCP and remote connects as UDP, thus having only UDP connections over the air. I have never messed with a Virtual LAN before though and I'm not even sure if a setting up a Virtual LAN like that is even the same as encapsulated UDP.
Regardless of what path we end up going, it's sounding like we definitely need to go away from TCP since it has so much more header information in the data it sends and it has to talk back and forth too much. If I could send the messages in a different protocol than TCP, I could also eliminate the 120 second TCP connection timeout issue.
As far as line of sight, there are tons of hills and tall trees in this area. Line of sight is not a luxury we have. If you look at the topographical map on Google Earth, you would wonder how some of our connections get a signal at all. Not to mention, some of our RTUs are miles away from the MTU (those of which are usually using a repeater or two to get back to the MTU).
We have definitely been considering splitting up our network as well. Possibly having 2 extra MTUs that are remote and connect back to the main MTU through cell or cable internet.
It is unfortunate that I did not work here back when this system was installed (it was installed about 4 years before I started). Apparently, this system never worked very well in the first place. Considering that we have over 65 RTUs online now and growing, it's unlikely the higher ups will approve another major telemetry upgrade. We are stuck with the MicroLogix 1400 RTUs and the Viper SC 200+ radios for now. I could change out the MTU PLC if necessary, that would be a small cost in comparison to replacing all of our MicroLogix PLCs. However, we had an integrator test our system using a ControlLogix PLC and we were getting the same TCP connection timeout issue. I also talked to Rockwell Tech support for over an hour last week and apparently SLC Typed Read messages are unconnected, so they do not use a CIP connection.
I am very new to all of these different networking protocols, so I do not know what the best choice is. Please excuse my ignorance.
I have also had someone suggest I use encapsulated UDP. I am not sure if that is a viable option as well or not.
The only way I could see to use UDP instead of TCP just from a quick glance is to set up a Virtual LAN in the viper radio. If I am understanding what I read properly, with a Virtual LAN I could set local connections to TCP and remote connects as UDP, thus having only UDP connections over the air. I have never messed with a Virtual LAN before though and I'm not even sure if a setting up a Virtual LAN like that is even the same as encapsulated UDP.
Regardless of what path we end up going, it's sounding like we definitely need to go away from TCP since it has so much more header information in the data it sends and it has to talk back and forth too much. If I could send the messages in a different protocol than TCP, I could also eliminate the 120 second TCP connection timeout issue.
As far as line of sight, there are tons of hills and tall trees in this area. Line of sight is not a luxury we have. If you look at the topographical map on Google Earth, you would wonder how some of our connections get a signal at all. Not to mention, some of our RTUs are miles away from the MTU (those of which are usually using a repeater or two to get back to the MTU).
We have definitely been considering splitting up our network as well. Possibly having 2 extra MTUs that are remote and connect back to the main MTU through cell or cable internet.
It is unfortunate that I did not work here back when this system was installed (it was installed about 4 years before I started). Apparently, this system never worked very well in the first place. Considering that we have over 65 RTUs online now and growing, it's unlikely the higher ups will approve another major telemetry upgrade. We are stuck with the MicroLogix 1400 RTUs and the Viper SC 200+ radios for now. I could change out the MTU PLC if necessary, that would be a small cost in comparison to replacing all of our MicroLogix PLCs. However, we had an integrator test our system using a ControlLogix PLC and we were getting the same TCP connection timeout issue. I also talked to Rockwell Tech support for over an hour last week and apparently SLC Typed Read messages are unconnected, so they do not use a CIP connection.