Typical System Configurations

There are two typical network configurations for the wireless telemetry radio-based SCADA systems. They are the point-to-point and the point-to-multipoint configurations.

Point-to-Point Configuration

The Point-to-Point configuration is the simplest set-up for a telemetry system. Here data is exhanged between two stations. One station can be set up as the master and the other as the slave. An example is a set-up of two RTUs: one for a reservoir or tank and the other for a water pump at a different location. Whenever the tank is nearly empty, the RTU at the tank will send an EMPTY command to the other RTU. Upon receiving this command, the RTU at the water pump will start pumping water to the tank. When the tank is full, the tank’s RTU will send a FULL command to the pump’s RTU to stop the motor.

Point-to-Point Configuration

Point-to-Multipoint Configuration

The Point-to-Multipoint configuration is where one device is designated as the master unit to several slave units. The master is usually the main host and is located at the control room. While the slaves are the remote units at the remote sites. Each slave is assigned a unique address or identification number.

Point-to-Multipoint Configuration

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