Wireless Communications Blog
How Two-Way Radio Systems Integrate with SCADA and Industrial Control Networks
Two-way radios aren’t just voice tools. With the right integration, your radio network can read plant status, trigger alarms, and feed data directly into your industrial control systems.
- RoIP — Radio over IP
- SCADA — Integration layer
- Real-time — Telemetry
Beyond voice: radio as a data transport layer
Most organisations think of two-way radio purely as a voice communication tool. Press the button, say the words, release. But modern digital radio systems — DMR, TETRA, and PoC — carry data channels alongside voice, and those data channels can be connected directly to your operational technology (OT) infrastructure.
SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems manage and monitor industrial processes — pumping stations, substations, pipeline networks, manufacturing lines. Traditionally, SCADA telemetry ran over dedicated wired or cellular links. Radio integration adds a resilient, low-latency parallel path that field operators can also speak on.
Real-world example: A water utility links its DMR radio network to its SCADA system. When a pump station alarm triggers, the SCADA platform automatically broadcasts a voice alert on the relevant radio channel and sends a status data packet to the field supervisor’s terminal — all without human intervention.
How the integration works technically
The bridge between radio and SCADA typically uses one of three approaches. RoIP (Radio over IP) gateways connect radio channels to IP networks, allowing SCADA servers to send and receive data via standard network protocols. Serial-to-IP converters translate legacy RS-232/RS-485 telemetry into Ethernet-compatible signals that radio data modems can carry. For more sophisticated deployments, middleware platforms such as Zetron ACOM or Omnitronics RoIP act as intelligent brokers between the radio layer and enterprise systems.
DMR Tier 3 trunked systems support dedicated data slots — each time slot can carry voice or data, and a dual-slot TDMA channel can run both simultaneously. A field engineer can be on a voice call while their terminal uploads GPS coordinates and sensor readings.
Typical integration architecture
What triggers can radio systems send and receive?
Once the IP bridge is in place, the range of possible integrations is broad. Inbound triggers (SCADA to radio) include automated voice announcements when alarm thresholds are crossed, status text messages to radio terminal displays, and automatic channel group changes that re-route field teams. Outbound triggers (radio to SCADA) include GPS position updates on every transmission, DTMF tones activating remote switching, emergency button presses logged in the SCADA historian, and structured data packets from attached sensors.
Industries where this delivers the most value
Water & utilities
Pump station alarms, valve status, pressure readings — all on one unified communications layer.
Power distribution
Substation fault alerts routed directly to the field crew radio, with automatic channel assignment.
Manufacturing
Production line status feeds to supervisor radios; field teams acknowledge machine faults via radio.
Oil & gas
Pipeline telemetry and intrinsically safe radio integrated into a single operational picture.
Security considerations
Connecting radio infrastructure to OT networks requires careful attention to cybersecurity. The OT/IT boundary should be managed with appropriate network segmentation — typically a DMZ architecture with firewalls between the radio IP gateway and the SCADA network. Encrypted DMR (AES-256) ensures radio traffic cannot be intercepted, and access control lists restrict which radio terminals can send control commands.
Yesway’s approach: We design radio-to-SCADA integrations from the ground up, working with your OT team to ensure the architecture is secure, resilient, and aligned with your operational requirements. We don’t just supply radios — we engineer connected systems.
Ready to connect your radio and SCADA systems?
Yesway Communications designs and integrates radio systems with industrial control networks across the UK. Let’s talk about what’s possible for your operation.
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