PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** RuralConnect® TV White Space Radio Installation & User Guide Carlson Wireless Technologies, Inc. 2700 Foster Avenue, Arcata, CA 95521 Tel: (707) 822-7000 Fax: (707) 822-7010 www.CarlsonWireless.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Trademarks RuralConnect® and the RuralConnect® logo are registered trademarks of Carlson Wireless Technologies, Inc. Windows® is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. Copyright Copyright© 2013 Carlson Wireless Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No person may reproduce this manual without explicit permission from Carlson.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** authorize non-qualified personnel to work on equipment without the direct supervision of a professionally trained service technician. Proper Handling and Grounding The electronic components of the RuralConnect® equipment are sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD). In order to prevent potential warranty voiding damage, you must use an adequately grounded anti-static wrist strap when handling the equipment.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Additional Information on TV Band Interference Protection This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the rules for TV band devices, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These rules are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Table of Contents 1.1. Scope of Manual.............................................................................................................7 1.2. Overview.........................................................................................................................7 2.1. Proper Handling..............................................................................................................7 2.2.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** 6.6. Manual Revision Notes.................................................................................................31 Table of Figures Figure 1: RuralConnect® Base Unit..............................................................................................7 Figure 2: RuralConnect® CPE Unit...............................................................................................
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** 1. Introduction 1.1. Scope of Manual The purpose of this manual is to provide professional planning and installation personnel with the appropriate information and procedures required to install and operate the RuralConnect® TV White Space Broadband Radio and accessory equipment.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** components of the RuralConnect® equipment are sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD). Use adequate ESD protection, such as an anti-static wrist strap, whenever handling the equipment. It is also important to avoid the use of conductive tools. 2.2. Grounding A ground is a low impedance electrical connection to the earth utilized for energy dissipation.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** 2.4.1. RF Cables Carlson carries professional-grade RF coax cables that provide greater durability and less attenuation/loss than those readily available. We offer and recommend well-insulated 75-Ohm broadband coaxial cable with gas-injected foam polyethylene insulation. For short jumper connections, use 18 AWG RG-6/U cables with a solid .040” bare copper conductor. For longer runs, use 14 AWG RG-11 cables with a .
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** 2.6. Before Arrival Users operate the RuralConnect® system from the Online Management Center, or OMC. After placing your order, and prior to receiving the equipment, you will need to have a registered OMC user account. If you do not have an OMC account, visit http://omc.neul.com and click “register a new account”. You may wish to have multiple accounts for your employees.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Warning: Never power up a unit without proper cabling and attenuation. You must have at least 60 dB of attenuation between RuralConnect® units. Failure to do so could result in system damage that may void the warranty. 2.9.1. Test Cable Set The bench-testing cable set (“RC-TECH-KIT”) will allow you to bench test a Basestation with two CPEs. Connect the units with the supplied cables and connectors.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** 2.9.3. Getting Started on the OMC You will use the Neul/Carlson Operation & Management Center to test and operate your RuralConnect® radios. Open a web browser and browse to http://omc.neul.com. Enter your OMC user name and password. You should have an OMC account created by Carlson. The username will match your Carlson Customer ID.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** On the “Basestation Details” page, click the “Messages” tab. Figure 11: Messages Listing The last few messages should include “Radio Connected!” and “Completed Initialization”. Verify that the message dates and times are correct for system initialization. If “Radio Connected!” and “Completed Initialization” messages are not displayed, then troubleshoot your Internet connection and/or wait another 3-5 minutes.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** If your find incorrect latitude and longitude information, contact Carlson Support or your spectrum database manager for correction. Close the “Basestation Details” window. 2.9.5. Verifying Cell Control At the top of the page, click the “Cell Control” tab. Figure 14: Cell Control Tab Select the tab shown for your Basestation. Both the Basestation and its active CPEs will appear.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** 2.10. RF Testing with RadioTest Either on the bench or in the field, you can use the RadioTest software to test the RF performance of the radio. This software will provide you with accurate measurement of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), bit error rate (BER) and more. 2.10.1.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** directly below the antenna (see Figure 16). The pole mount clamp is reversible for a wide variety of mast sizes. Please note that the articulating bolts need to be tighter than you would expect in order to retain their position. This section of the manual is under development. Visit the Carlson Online Help Desk if you have any questions. Figure 16: CPE pole mount detail 3.1.4.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Figure 18: Carlson Basestation Rear Panel The rear panel of the Basestation has the following ports: A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. K.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** CPEs connect to a Basestation via a UHF radio signal. Due to the unique propagation characteristics of signals in the UHF band, good connections are generally possible even if there is a non-line-of-sight path to the Basestation. Once a link to the Basestation is established, CPEs provide network access via a standard Ethernet connection. The bottom plate of the CPE has an RF port, Ethernet port and four (4) RSSI LEDs.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** 5.3. Home Page After logging in, you will see the Home page, displaying bulleted text hyperlinks to help you navigate to each section. The OMC also has navigation tabs, available from any page. While browsing around the OMC, the “Home” tab will bring you back to this page. 5.4. Operations Panel To access the Operations Panel, click on its link.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** 5.4.3. Cells Click on the “Cells” drop-down tab. This section displays each Basestation assigned to your account and the associated CPEs of each. You will see each station name, its Globally Unique Identifier (GUID), description and health. To filter the list of Basestations, click on the filter icon next to any column heading. Enter any keywords you wish to search for and press Enter, or click the “Filter” button.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Basestation is currently in a “soft-reboot” state, indicated by a checkmark. The radio is not accessible while in this state; access will resume upon successful completion of the boot sequence. Note: the Basestation boot process can take up to five (5) minutes or more. The “Last Reported” column displays the amount of time elapsed since your Basestation last reported state to the OMC.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** modulations, such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) provide a mechanism for higher bit rates, and thus more available throughput. These complex modulations, however, have a negative impact on the receive threshold of the radio, the signal level at which the link is unreliable. Modulation modes are in order of net bit rate, with the highest bit rate at the top of the list.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Basestation Details include the name, description, GUID, IP Address, whitespace database provider. You will also see the “AfterBootSystem”, the boot image used to initialize the Basestation with the OMC upon establishing a connection. You will also see two buttons. To perform a “soft reboot” of a Basestation, click the “Reboot” button. To restart the station software alone, without a reboot, click the “Restart Stack” button.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** allocation lease expires. Registration The Registration Details include the station site coordinates, antenna height and your contact information. These fields are required for registration with the spectrum database. Click the “Edit” button, fill out all the fields and then click the “Confirm” button. Activity Click on the “Activity” tab to view the RF network history of the RuralConnect Basestation.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Registration The Registration Details include the station site coordinates, antenna height and your contact information. These fields are required for registration with the spectrum database. Click the “Edit” button, fill out all the fields and then click the “Confirm” button. Channel Allocations The spectrum database provides a list of available channels, based on the registration details.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Performance This tab provides a line graph of the uplink and downlink SNR history for the CPE. Figure 41: SNR History Graph The drop-down menu allows a choice of timelines. Click “Enable/Disable Performance Logging” to start/stop the log, 6. Appendices 6.1.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** REGULATORY SPECIFICATIONS ACP and Spectrum Mask Meets FCC and Ofcom specifications -55 dBr +/- 3 MHz relative to 12.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** CARLSON SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS PRODUCT OR ARISING OUT OF ANY BREACH OF THIS WARRANTY. ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE LIMITED TO THE APPLICABLE WARRANTY PERIOD SET FORTH ABOVE.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** bps Bits per second, the rate of at which data is transmitted. Byte A digital “word” usually made up of eight bits. CPE Customer Premise Equipment, or “Client Station”; an endpoint, usually at a customer’s location, that connects to a network (or the Internet) via an access point Ethernet A set of computer networking technologies for local area networks (LANs).
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** 6.5. Useful URLs Carlson provides the following URLs for reference purposes only. This is not a comprehensive source for this information. The purchaser must be familiar themselves with all relevant safety and/or regulatory information prior to the operation of a RuralConnect® system. Carlson does not authorize untrained and/or unqualified personnel to work on the system without the supervision of a qualified technician.
PRELIMINARY RELEASE *** This is a confidential document. Do not distribute. *** Weatherproofing RF connections http://www.dxengineering.com/pdf/WeatherProofingCoax-TechTip.pdf RF Safety information FCC: Radio Frequency Safety http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/rfsafety/rf-faqs.html VHF/UHF Exposure information/warnings http://transition.fcc.gov/oet/rfsafety/rf-faqs.