Radio telemetry is a vital function for many organisations using distributed infrastructure, particularly for utilities such as electricity and water supply. The ability to communicate with distant objects for control or data transfer applications improves efficiency and allows faults to be corrected more quickly. New European legislation in the form of the lone worker Directive will also in some cases need to be solved using telemetry methods.

ATDI tools have all the features necessary to plan detailed telemetry networks. ATDI have carried out consultancy for organisations implementing telemetry systems and also to probe the suitability of individual links. We have also sold tools to organisations who plan and manage their own networks.

General Telemetry Methods

• The spectrum set aside for telemetry is well covered by suitable algorithms in ATDI prediction tools, and the ability to manage tens of thousands of links within a single project framework takes this ability to the level required for a major telemetry operator.
• All the tools for link budget calculations, site searching, interference analysis and network optimisation are available in ATDI products.

Specific Telemetry Methods

Existing links can be individually examined in great detail and parameters such as antenna height, pattern, transmitted power etc can all be modified interactively and the impact immediately seen.

New links can be planned with reference to terminal locations, intervening terrain and ground clutter features, antenna patterns and power. ICS telecom nG can automatically find appropriate terminal locations and the whole link can be optimised.

Individual links can be managed en mass via the unique database features of ICS telecom nG - this features the ability to group link terminals in groups of up to 16,000; multiple databases can be used (hard disk space and handling times are the practical limits - once millions of sites are used).

Links and terminal locations, path budgets and other information can be freely transferred between ICS telecom nG and other packages such as Microsoft Excel and Access and most other industry standard databases.

Internally, each terminal can be annotated with site pictures, video clips, administrative documents in Microsoft Word format or Excel spreadsheets. This provides a useful management function.