Section 5: Performance Monitoring, Testing, And Troubleshooting; Overview; Monitoring Radio Performance - Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories SEL-3031 Instruction Manual

Preliminary Copy—Subject to Change
Performance Monitoring, Testing,
and Troubleshooting

Overview

This section provides information on monitoring radio performance, testing, and
troubleshooting. Because the SEL-3031 is equipped with extensive self-tests,
traditional periodic test procedures may be eliminated or greatly reduced.

Monitoring Radio Performance

This section describes the tools you can use to monitor and improve the radio
performance. This section assumes that the radio link is up and running in service.
There are several items that you can use to optimize the radio link. The first section
explains how to optimize standard radio links using DNP3, Modbus
oriented protocols. The second section addresses monitoring the radio performance
when using M
IRRORED
Monitoring and Improving Radio Link Performance
This section assumes the radio link is up and running with sufficient link availability. If
the radio link is either not working or has very low availability view Section 2:
Installation for information on properly installed and operating the radio.
Obtain access through the front USB port either with a terminal program or
SEL QuickSet
AC ERATOR
command (see Figure 5.1). The first value from the report is the RSSI receive signal
strength indication. This is the level of received level strength of the radio given in
dBm. A good radio link should have 15 dBm of margin to account for environmental
conditions and signal fade. The SEL-3031 receiver is rated down to –97 dBm or
–104 dBm with ARQ on. If you observe a fade margin of 15 dBm or greater then you
are receiving a strong signal. If the fade margin is less than 15 dBm that does not mean
the radio link will not work; it means that the performance and channel availability
needs to be monitored. To increase the signal or availability numbers the radio antenna
may need to be adjusted, output power increased, antenna replaced with a with a higher
gain antenna, (not to exceed transmit power of 36 dBm EIRP), or the SKIP setting used
to avoid zones with low availability. A path study should always be done before the
Date Code 20181001
Section 5
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SEL-3031 Instruction Manual