Abstract: A plunger lift system, as well as a method for monitoring plunger parameters within a wellbore using such a plunger lift system, are provided. The plunger lift system includes a lubricator attached to a wellhead at the surface and a plunger dimensioned to travel through the production tubing upon being released from the lubricator. The plunger lift system also includes magnetic sensor systems installed along the production tubing, where each magnetic sensor system includes a magnetic sensor for detecting the passage of the plunger as it travels through the production tubing, as well a communication device for transmitting communication signals between the magnetic sensor systems and a computing system located at the surface, where the computing system includes a processor and a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium including computer-executable instructions that direct the processor to dynamically determine the plunger position and/or velocity based on the received communication signals.

Abstract: A host connected outboard back-up and recovery system has a tape drive connected to a plural port solid-state cache memory which, in turn, is connected to a disk drive. Data to be backed-up can first be copied from the disk drive to the cache and then from the cache to the tape drive in back-up operations, so that the relative speeds of the disk drive and the tape need not be matched. An outboard controller controls flow of the data between the disk drive and the tape drive and additionally controls storage of the data on the tape, so that host computer involvement is avoided.