Project number
25079
Organization
Bard Water District
Offering
ENGR498-F2024-S2025
Radio communications relay data from and to sensors and actuators in the irrigation water distribution system across the 18,000-acre BWD. The district is expanding status monitoring and distribution control automation across its geographic footprint. However, obstructions within the terrain and fields of palm trees reduce or even completely block radio signals and line of sight (LOS) between existing antennae, limiting automation expansion.
The team used the Radio Mobile software to simulate the existing radio network and identified multiple technically viable solutions. Through close coordination with the project sponsor to define stakeholder needs and priorities, the team developed comprehensive analysis and comparison criteria to determine the optimal solution.
Following the sponsor’s concurrence with the design team’s initial recommendations, the team ran additional Radio Mobile simulations to solve a secondary problem: extending connectivity to the area southwest of the office just outside of the town of Winterhaven. The team achieved this by extending the main tower to attain LOS with a greater part of the southwestern area and installing the subscriber radios on 16 ft poles mounted on concrete bases. The district can place these hardware mounts near any of the sensors or actuators in the area and relay the radio signal to other areas with obstructions. This ensures LOS and signal integrity throughout the BWD area of operation.
The team used the Radio Mobile software to simulate the existing radio network and identified multiple technically viable solutions. Through close coordination with the project sponsor to define stakeholder needs and priorities, the team developed comprehensive analysis and comparison criteria to determine the optimal solution.
Following the sponsor’s concurrence with the design team’s initial recommendations, the team ran additional Radio Mobile simulations to solve a secondary problem: extending connectivity to the area southwest of the office just outside of the town of Winterhaven. The team achieved this by extending the main tower to attain LOS with a greater part of the southwestern area and installing the subscriber radios on 16 ft poles mounted on concrete bases. The district can place these hardware mounts near any of the sensors or actuators in the area and relay the radio signal to other areas with obstructions. This ensures LOS and signal integrity throughout the BWD area of operation.