About
The Cigorn Gateway is a Wide-Area RF IP Gateway that is easy to manage, simple to deploy, data-centric, and very bandwidth efficient. Cigorn intelligently routes data messages, monitors network operation, and interacts with users and administrators. It dynamically assigns wireless bandwidth to operate even when 100% of the subscriber devices need to communicate (for a quick overview see this presentation).
Cigorn is optimized for telemetry, SCADA, mobile data, RTK, meter-reading, utility-monitoring, as well as GPS tracking, but will scale to work for wireless broadband access, two-way voice calling, and many other wireless applications. The Cigorn Gateway is built using powerful computing hardware, feature-rich software, and sophisticated communication protocols. But because Giga-bytes of RAM are cheap, GHz processors are cheap, and Open Source Linux software is free and reliable, the Cigorn Gatway is more sophisticated than comparable commercial systems, and yet costs very little to build.
Possible Applications for a Cigorn Wireless Network are:
- Wide-area GPS tracking system using UHF/VHF radios spanning multiple sites, mines, dumps, cities, and states.
- Routing data in a SCADA system giving it internet access, remote management, system logging, and bridging sites.
- Radio telemetry systems, meter reading, vending machine status, and remote monitoring over a wide area with many individually addressed nodes.
- Mobile data system for public safety, dispatch, busses, taxis, or trucking.
- Protocol translator between various radio networks and interfaces such as DNPP, MODBUS, TAP, WMX, and NMEA.
- Interconnecting multiple wireless systems to make them look like one network.
- RTK signal distribution utilizing multiple networks and radio technologies.
The primary functions of the Cigorn Gateway are:
- Intelligent routing to send/receive data messages to the correct wireless devices anywhere in the network.
- Manage/configure wireless devices over-the-air (slot numbers, TDMA timing, assign RF channels, …)
- Translate protocols.
- Monitor system operation, report on performance via Web, command-line, and email.
- Allow for wireless devices to be easily added or removed from the network.
- Track the wireless devices as they roamfrom one gateway to another or are moved to another site.
- Route messages to/from the appropriate gateway for each wireless device in the network.
- Communicate messages from a user (via WMX-telnet, SMTP, RTCM, NTRIP, or MODBUS, MODBUS Ethernet) to and from the radios.
- Provide mechanisms for a system operator to track system usage by Wireless Device and by groups of Wireless Devices.
- Provide a telnet, SSH, and Web interface to manage the gateway.
- Track the GPS position and status of all radios and allow a user to query for position.
- Forward GPS position data to any number of external applications via telnet connections.
- Maintain a central database of all wireless devices, their statistics, their status, and their authorizations.
