The Island of Guernsey goes wireless for water management with ProSoft Technology’s RadioLinx


The island of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency, located in the English Channel, about 30 miles from the north coast of France and 70 miles from the south coast of England. Guernsey Water has deployed a communication network to integrate 40 facilities into a single network. These range from pumping stations and water treatment works to land and office buildings. The ProSoft Technology solution, based on IEEE 802.11n standard, proved to be a reliable, easy to integrate and cost-effective solution.


Generally speaking, wireless networks offer many advantages for a wide range of applications. In this case, the main benefit was to ease the interconnection of remote sites. This is the type of challenging project faced by Guernsey Water, the company responsible for delivering high-quality drinking water for Islanders (www.water.gg). In addition, Guernsey Water aims to provide a high level of customer service - therefore an efficient communication network is a key requirement. Remote sites used to be connected through the telephone network to the infrastructure. For a new site, no line was available. Instead of adding a new cabled line, the radio option was considered; two RadioLinx radios were installed on this pilot site for tests and evaluation by Boulting Group. One year later, valuing the positive feedback from engineering, installation and operation teams and having a need for revamping its SCADA network, Guernsey Water decided to deploy a wide network to cover the whole Island.


The benefits of wireless became evident very shortly, since installing a pair of radios is much faster than a new phone line, which requires additional engineering work, e.g. trenches, etc. This is very important for an application in such a location (an island) where being self-sufficient is essential for survival and avoids high expenses!


In addition, the wireless links have revealed high reliability, no communication losses, and higher bandwith despite the weather conditions on the Island. The technology has allowed more efficient remote control over the remote site. The solution provided by ProSoft Technology showed a list of benefits in terms of profitability too: the cost of the pair of radios falls within the range of the fixed phone line rental fee for 1 year – and both the better quality and higher speed of the communication network allow a better quality of service to the user.


The best option for high-capacity wireless networks


All of this was feasible thanks to the ProSoft Technology’s RadioLinx 802.11n industrial radios. These high-technology products provide world-class performance for high-capacity networks, including those in interference-prone locations – typically indoor applications – as they can operate with MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) technology antennas. The coexistence of multiple networks is guaranteed by means of a combination of 2.4 + 5 GHz bands that offers 3 + 19 non-overlapping channels. They also feature a very high signal sensitivity and range, and come as a single-radio or dual-radio Industrial Hotspot, or single-radio Industrial Client.


In the Guernsey project in particular, 19 Industrial Hotspots have been installed; 2 units for the pilot project plus 17 units (mixing single and dual radios) for the second phase. Some key industrial features of these products are their hazardous location certifications (UL1604 Class I Div 2, ATEX Zone 2 Cat 3), their


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