Managed Industrial Ethernet switches perform basic switching functionality for copper or fibre optic networks as well as providing an intelligent interface to the network which provides the administrator with enhanced monitoring and performance features.
Some of the features common to managed Industrial Ethernet switches that represent real value to an installer or end user are:
Redundancy: The ability to build self-healing networks that continue to operate even if a cable is broken or a connector un-plugged. The additional reliability that a redundant network provides is often a pre-requisite for mission-critical industrial networks. This is a key feature of managed Industrial Ethernet switches.
SNMP: Simple Network Management Protocol - this feature of managed Ethernet switches allows the network's health status to be monitored from a central PC. SNMP is a very powerful tool for administrators that want to see all aspects of network performance in real-time.
VLAN: Create virtual LANs to separate different types of data on a network. For example, IP video from cameras may need to be kept separate from other management data for legal purposes. This feature of Industrial Ethernet switches can save the cost of building 2 separate networks by allowing 2 virtual LANs on the same hardware. VLANs limit broadcast domains.
QoS: Prioritise traffic through the switch using QoS. Allows control data to be treated with high priority and administrative information such as emails to be queued for delivery when the network is less busy. This is a general feature of managed Ethernet switches but can be particularly useful in Industrial Ethernet applications where timely delivery of data is critical.
Port control: Block certain ports of an Industrial Ethernet switch or fix their data rate to match attached equipment.
Approvals: Many of Amplicon's Industrial Ethernet switches have IEC61850 approval for substation applications, NEMA-TS2 approval for traffic applications, DNV approval for marine applications and EN50155 for railway applications. The Industrial Ethernet switches have other approvals too - please call for details.
Fibre: Amplicon can supply fibre optic Ethernet switches with up to 32 ports of multimode or singlemode fibre. Many Industrial Ethernet switches will only support a few fibre optic Ethernet ports. Amplicon supply Moxa Industrial Ethernet switches as well as Garrettcom Industrial Ethernet switches allowing us to provide a rack-mount switch or DIN-rail switch suited to your application.
If you would like to understand more about the benefits of managed switches or Industrial Ethernet switches in general, please call our sales team on 01273 570 220.
