Anybus Wireless Bluetooth for Ethernet Cable Replacement

I am looking at a potential replacement for running Cat6 cables between portable pieces of equipment twice a year. My main question pertains to the density of separate networks that would be present in a single production room floor and if the bluetooth mode would be suitable for this application.

My application has a dozen production lines with multiple pieces of mobile equipment that sit in two rooms. I am hoping to simplify the move process twice a year by creating a wireless connection between multiple control panels, but separate from each individual production line (each line sits behind an eWON Cosy acting as remote access and a NAT device). Each piece of equipment requires a reliable signal from each other piece of equipment, acting as an interlock, allowing each piece of equipment to run in tandem. Would the Anybus bluetooth be suitable for this application? A dozen-plus WiFi networks would likely have severe network interference issues in such a confined area from what I understand, so am looking for other solutions. We do not want a single point of failure shutting down multiple lines, so a main AP for several lines is out of the question as well.

Thanks for your help!

Hello @ICS_Electric,
I am not sure there is any easy answer to this and I do not think I will be able to provide a concrete solution. An application like this would involve more detailed research into the application and the environment it is going to be deployed in.

Bluetooth is most likely not going to offer you the speeds you need to replace a CAT6 Ethernet cable.

As you mention multiple WiFi Networks would present an issue where the radio spectrum is will be come saturated quickly. A single WiFi network with a single AP has the issue of a single point of failure. You might be able to find a solution with Single WiFi Network with multi-access point. This would give you multiple stations for the devices to connect to and should avoid having a lot of interference.

You can find more details on the AWB devices on their Overview pages on Anybus.com https://www.anybus.com/products/wireless-index/anybus-wireless-bridge/detail/anybus-wireless-bridge-ii---ethernet

@us_sales Might be able to share some more suggestions to this questions.

Regards,
Deryck

Understandable, it is a detailed situation. We aren’t using CAT6 to the fullest, we just started using it in replacement of CAT5e a couple years ago, excessive information flow hasn’t been a genuine problem at any point.

The communications is mainly present to allow VFD’s at the beginning of the production line to run (to prevent too much product from coming down the production line when a drying cycle starts or elevators get overloaded) and to communicate back to the SCADA server basic information such as whether the equipment is running, if its running in manual or automatic and VFD speeds. I would have to verify the volume of traffic being passed through to make an accurate claim on there not being that much traffic, given VFD’s can overload ethernet switches on their own.

The multiple access point for a single network is the other solution I am researching as well, I was just curious if this product would work. I will be reaching out to a HMS rep through our electrical distributor as well, to see if we can develop a solution that way.

Thanks for your help!

Would these connections be one-to-one type connections or would they be one-to-many? Depending on this and the proximity to the connected systems, we could potentially dial back the radio power for these connections to limit interference with other systems.

Secondly, we could look at 5 GHz. If the systems are relatively close (200m theoretical, 50-100m practically), this would give use more non-overlapping channels and a lower signal floor as 5 GHz tends to be relatively less crowded than 2.4 GHz.

Please let me know your thoughts on this.

Best regards,
Jason Block