My sea water intake pumps are located 4 kms away from my main plant. I want to go for wireless communication between my DCS located in main plant and the PLC located near the sea water in take pumps. My question is

1. What will be the cost difference between wireless communication and hardwired (fiber optic cable) interface between the above two locations?

2. What is the distance limitation for telemetry?

3. Is any repeaters to be provided?

 

Cost difference?
Costs could go either way. Depends on what is in between the two points and what needs to be done to protect the cable (burial, mounted on poles, rivers and roads to cross???). However, the data rates possible over fiber will far exceed the data rates possible over the RF link, if that's important to you. Also, fiber is not subject to some of the propagation vagaries of RF.

Distance limitation for telemetry?
All depends on the terrain and obstacles in between the two points, RF output power used at the transmitters, antennae used at each end. Best to have a site evaluation performed by a professional in the field. There is some very good path loss evaluation software out there that can be very useful. This is not something that can be determined without careful evaluation

Is any repeaters to be provided?
Again depends on what is in between the two points. Without knowing the terrain,it's impossible to determine. Best to find a good "RF guy" to look at the site and give you a better idea of what to expect.

Cheers
Gerald Beaudoin