ProSoft Technology RLX2-IHNF-WC - Manual (Page 157)

RLX2 Industrial Hotspot Series
ProSoft Technology, Inc. Page 157 of 212
June 15, 2015
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E F E R E N C E
Product Overview
The RLX2 radio is an industrial high-speed Ethernet radio. Use it in place of Ethernet
cables to save money, extend range, and make connections that may not otherwise be
feasible. The radio operates as a wireless Ethernet switch. Any data that can be sent
over a wired network can also be sent over the radio.
The RLX2 radio series is certified for unlicensed operation in the United States, Canada
and Europe at 2.4 and 5 GHz. With approved high-gain antennas, the radios can achieve
distances of over 5 miles line-of-sight between them. Multiple repeaters can be used to
extend this range to far greater distances.
A highly reliable wireless network can be developed by creating redundant (page 95)
wireless paths. Multiple master (page 78) radios can be installed without any special
programming or control. Repeater (page 78) radios can connect to any master at any
time; if one master goes down, the repeater connects to another. Likewise, if a repeater
goes down, any repeater that was connected to it can reconnect to a different repeater,
keeping the network intact. Create large, self-healing tree-like networks can be done in
this fashion. Fully redundant paths are possible because the Spanning Tree (page 95)
protocol in the radios disables and enables paths as necessary to avoid Ethernet loops,
which would otherwise halt communications.
In addition to acting as a switch, every master or repeater radio in an RLX2 wireless
network can simultaneously act as an 802.11 a, b or g access point. This allows 802.11
WiFi clients to connect and roam between radios for monitoring of the wireless network
or general network access. The RLX2 has a special client mode (page 54) that allows
connection of any Ethernet device to any existing 802.11 a, b or g access point,
regardless of the brand (An example of an 802.11 client is a laptop with a WLAN card).
Note: Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, used to describe the underlying technology of
wireless local area networks (WLAN) based on the IEEE 802.11 specifications.
A high level of security is inherent with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption.
TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) is also available. If necessary, adding WEP128 or
WEP64 (Wired Equivalent Protocol) encryption in addition to AES or TKIP for clients that