Why El Paso natural upgraded its digital microwave system

Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1991 · Pipe Line Industry; (United States)

OSTI ID:5673035

Rico, J A ^[1]

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1. El Paso Natural Gas Co., El Paso, TX (US)

This paper reports on El Paso Natural Gas Co. (EPNG), a 22,000-mi pipe line network serving the Southwest and California, which operates an extensive private analog microwave network between the El Paso headquarters, field offices and compressor stations in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and delivery points along its routes in several states. A good portion of the analog microwave network has been in service for over 20 years. When the system was installed, data traffic consisted mainly of slow speed telemetry; stations were manned and there were no field computers. In recent years, system reliability requirements have increased as a result of the dramatic changes in the type of transmitted information. With automation of pipe line and compressor station operations, and more SCADA networks being use for pipe line monitoring, data takes up more of the system's channel capacity. Data communications cannot withstand propagation abnormalities in the microwave system as can voice communications.

• OSTI ID: 5673035
• Journal Information: Pipe Line Industry; (United States), Journal Name: Pipe Line Industry; (United States) Vol. 74:7; ISSN 0032-0145; ISSN PLINA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
032000* -- Natural Gas-- Transport
Handling
& Storage
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990301 -- Information Handling-- Data Handling-- (1992-)
ARIZONA
AUTOMATION
COMMUNICATIONS
COMPRESSORS
COMPUTER NETWORKS
COST
DATA TRANSMISSION
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DIGITAL SYSTEMS
FEDERAL REGION IX
FEDERAL REGION VI
GAS COMPRESSORS
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS
NEW MEXICO
NORTH AMERICA
PIPELINES
RELIABILITY
TELEMETRY
TEXAS
USA