EtherWAN’s data collection and transfer secures weather station

Overview

Rising to an altitude of 3,776 meters, Mt. Fuji is Japan's highest mountain. For many years, the Mt. Fuji Weather Station located at its summit has played a significant role as a base for weather observation. In recent years, the station was made available for use by general scientists, which has led to a host of new research taking advantage of the benefits of its high attitude. Currently meteorological data at the summit of Mt. Fuji are collected automatically by the meteorological equipment installed in the Mt. Fuji Weather Station. A network environment is required to attach with the meteorological equipment reporting the data from remote to a centralized workstation.
 

Technology

The weather observation structure will be used to connect with remote web cameras and detectors to gather sensor data, process it and distribute reports of current weather both within the Mt. Fuji station and externally as part of the worldwide weather information network. The new system will be integrated with existing weather sensor and data collection systems within Mt. Fuji, however implement fiber based Ethernet equipment for long distance data transmission.
 

Challenges

Reliability of the networking equipment is in top priority as all data transmission relies on the networkt. Equipment will need to remain resistant to the sever climate conditions where the average low temperature is -15°C and average wind speed is as high as 15m/sec. Hardened Ethernet connectivity equipment decision is definitely required. In some areas, geographic conditions do not allow fiber cable installation, however Ethernet transmission cannot be compromised. The only available communication line is phone wire buried there long time ago.
 

Solution

Sensors and data acquisition devices are installed on utility towers. Signals are converted to IP and transmitted to a remote centralized room. In between, the EL900 Hardened media converter is chosen for fiber connections. A hardened unmanaged switch is attached as well. Data is then transmitted to a local control, via phone wire, using EtherWAN's ED3541 hardened Ethernet Extender.
 

Results

A completed networking structure is built with EtherWAN's hardened unmanaged and managed switchs and media converters to provide a real-time weather observation system in part of Mt. Fuji. EtherWAN also provides a rack-mount commercial grade managed switch, EX3224 (with 24 fiber connections) located in the local IT room aggregating the remote connections and connecting monitoring stations. The idea of using the EX3141 hardened Ethernet Extender over phone wire provided a low cost alternative for the solution providers. More projects will be using the same technology when long distance Ethernet is a must yet cost and fiber installation are concerns.