Abstract: A manhole monitoring unit includes a housing mountable to walls of a closed manhole, without breaching an insulating layer on the walls, a data processor to receive data from monitoring sensors in the manhole, and a communication unit at least for transmitting wirelessly the data to an external network unit located above ground. A manhole monitoring and control unit includes a housing mountable to walls of a closed sewage manhole, without breaching the walls, a data processor to receive data from monitoring sensors in the manhole and to control actuators according to high level network commands, and a communication unit for transmitting wirelessly the data to an external network unit located above ground and receiving commands.

Abstract: A unified communications protocol for wireless local area networks (WLANs) (400) which provides for the fair co-existence of the IEEE 802.11a (“11a”) and HiPerLAN/2 (“HL2”), broadband communications standards. Wireless network devices (MT's) operating in accordance with 11a and HL2 may co-exist without interference by partitioning a 2 ms periodic lime domain, based on the HL2 standard, into a first slice for use by 11a MT's and a slice for use by HL2 devices. An Arbitrator entity (ARB) broadcasts the time slices periodically at an interval which is greater than or equal to the periodic time domain. A first access Point (E-AP) handles communication with the E-MT's, and a second Access Point (M-AP) handles communications with the e-MTSs and the M-MT's. In this manner, convergence is provided between 11a and HL2, providing users with the best or both worlds, e.g., full interoperability, QoS and co-existence.