GE Digital Energy's new single-box communications solution for the energy, utility and oil and gas market can reduce base station infrastructure costs by up to 67 percent.

The MDS Mercury 3650, a secure, industrial grade radio, provides up to 9 megabits per second (Mbps) aggregate Ethernet throughput for mission critical, industrial SCADA, AMI, video and VoIP wireless communications applications in the United States. Based on WiMAX technology – a high-speed, long-range wireless communication standard – the Mercury 3650 directly addresses the industry’s growing need for large throughput capabilities due to increased security requirements, additional hardware features, and field expansion due to mergers and acquisitions. With a return on investment measured in just a few months rather than years, the high capacity 3.65 GHz wireless solution provides a cost-effective alternative to wired options such as leased T1 and T3 lines or buried dedicated lines.

Built on 802.16d technology, the Mercury 3650 is capable of prioritizing data using Quality of Service (QoS) and dedicated service flows, so that the applications most important to the business, such as video for security or mission-critical asset monitoring, will always have bandwidth. Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with Forward Error Correction (FEC) and Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) provide robust near- and non-line-of-sight communication capabilities, which can reduce base infrastructure costs by not requiring direct line of sight capabilities.

Mercury 3650 operates in the most rugged, harsh industrial environments. It is certified to operate in extreme temperature ranges, from -40C to +70C. The product’s rugged, durable aluminum chassis is tested to military standards for shock and vibration. Deployments in hazardous and electric power substation environments are facilitated by the solution’s Class 1/Div 2 certification and IEEE 1613-compliance.

GE Digital Energy