RS-232 communication channels permit the connection of up to 5 devices over a distance of about
1 00 to 200 feet over a three wire connection. This has proven to be very popular in control room applications. The required building blocks are a RS-232 port on the instrument, a suitable cable, an available RS-232 communication port on the host PC and suitable "middleware" on the PC which communicates with the same protocol as the flow computer. KEP's flow computers provide an RS-232 Port as standard with an open, but proprietary, protocol. "Middleware" includes OPC/DDE Servers with the KEP protocol driver.

RS-485 communication channels permit the connection of up to 32 devices over a distance of about a mile over a connection requiring two wires. This has proven to be very popular for field instruments located throughout a manufacturing plant. The required building blocks are a RS-485 port on the instrument, a suitable cable, a RS-485 to RS-232 communication adapter on the host PC and suitable "middleware" on the PC which communicates with the same protocol as the flow computer. KEP flow computers offer an optional RS-485 Port with the Modbus RTU protocol driver ( an industry standard in remote metering). "Middleware" includes OPC/DDE Servers with Modbus RTU.