IIOT Networking Solutions with a Failsafe Wireless Technology

Do you struggle with achieving consistent and reliable connectivity across your full site? While there are no shortages of connectivity and network options for companies involved in military, mining, ports, rail, oil & gas, petrochemical plants, public safety, agriculture, and warehouse & factory automation, all fall short of effectively connecting a growing and moving infrastructure both indoors and outdoors.

Two of the main options businesses tend to use are WiFi and LTE (4G/5G). Whilst WiFi is high speed and has the capacity to connect many devices, it is mainly suited for indoor purposes only as connectivity is easily lost outdoors when an object moves too far out of range. To solve this issue, additional WiFi access points need to be installed on site to keep WiFi in reach of all devices that require it, however for mobile objects, the signal will degrade as these objects move further away from these access points, meaning interference and coverage drops are common.
LTE is another option organisations adopt. Whilst LTE has the ability to reach further areas and go over and around infrastructure obstructions, LTE is unable to reach shadowed areas and remote locations. To solve this issue, additional 4G towers can be added to achieve everywhere reach but this is costly, time consuming and not always straight forward. LTE faces the same problem as WiFi when objects move away from the tower, the signal will degrade. LTE also lacks upstream speeds which becomes an issue when trying to operate mission critical applications such as real time machine guidance and CCTV. This is not an option when there is a need for critical data and a secure network.

The solution. Rajant Kinetic Mesh Technology, a fully mobile wireless mesh network connectivity that requires less infrastructure to create reliable mobile coverage across a full industrial site. Rajant uses breadcrumb nodes which works object to object holding multiple connections over multiple frequencies at the same time. This maintains bandwidth as the objects move around the full site. These Breadcrumb nodes can either be fixed on site or can be deployed on mobile equipment to achieve coverage in hard to reach areas. Many Rajant users are now adopting robotic collaboration and are adding drones to their fleet, this helps with aerial surveillance, infrastructure monitoring and also acts as another mobile breadcrumb node to achieve robust aerial broadband connectivity.

Rajant’s Instamesh Technology intelligently orchestrates traffic across the numerous connection points. It dynamically accesses and selects the fastest route possible if faced with signal blockage or interference making mission critical mobility possible. The Kinetic Mesh technology has military-grade security and there are no restrictions on distance as long as there are a number of breadcrumb devices across the area.

Applied Integration (AI) are proud to partner with Rajant Corporation as part of AI’s strategy of combining proven systems engineering expertise with carefully selected best in class automation technologies. An approach that will enable customers to manage the Industry 4.0 (and beyond) digital transformation, while ensuring minimal adoption disruption, optimised ROI, future proofed investments and development of world class logistics and manufacturing processes through effective technology adoption.

Under this new strategic partnership, Applied Integration will act as a reseller and expert technology integrator for Rajant Corporation. Customers will benefit from Applied Integration’s industry process knowledge, rigorous development processes, technology expertise and more than 20 years’ experience in supplying and maintaining safety and mission critical process solutions combined with world class leading Kinetic Mesh® technology from Rajant Corporation.

Industries such as Petrochemical plants are searching for Industry 4.0 solutions to optimise and revolutionise their production whilst increasing safety amongst the site. These advanced Industry 4.0 technologies such as autonomous robots and real time equipment analysis require constant IIoT connectivity in order to function effectively.

“We are extremely proud, and excited, to be working with Rajant, the technology is unlike any other wireless mesh systems we have seen in the market”, says Garry Lofthouse, CEO of Applied Integration. “This is a fantastic opportunity to partner with a technology enabler, enhancing our automation mobile connectivity, allowing us to deliver, unique World class totally integrated solutions”.

For more information and advise on how Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh Technology could help your company, contact Applied Integration today.

Applied Integration is a leading systems integrator, specialising in delivering the latest industry technologies with a focus on Industry 4.0, Digitalisation, Internet of Things (IoT), Analytics, Big data / Cloud Technologies, Safety Critical Systems (SIL1, SIL2, SIL3) and Robotics and Collaborative Robots (Cobots). Founded in 2005, AI has a dynamic, 50+ strong engineering team with many years combined experience.