Industrial Ethernet

Industrial Ethernet on the plant floor has gained mass acceptance across multiple industries. Designed to create the real-time seamless flow of information between the plant floor and the back office. Industrial Ethernet networks are also becoming an integral part of real-time control systems for process control and discrete manufacturing applications.

All major manufacturers of DCS (Distributed Control Systems) and PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) support Ethernet communications on their devices and have made support for Ethernet networking and Ethernet based protocols (e.g. EtherNet/IP, ProfiNet, Modbus TCP) a major feature of their product and system offerings.

Typical Network Architecture

The following diagram illustrates a typical network architecture for industrial applications:

This diagram shows Ethernet switches, serial servers, and media converters at the device level; high speed Ethernet switches as the control level; and connections to the factory and corporate LANs through a router. Ethernet is very prevalent at the “Control Level” but is increasingly migrating its way down to the “Device Level” with more and more remote I/O and analog sensor devices being offered with Ethernet connectivity built-in.

RuggedCom Ethernet Switches

Originally designed to be used in mission critical substation automation applications, RuggedCom’s RuggedSwitch^® family of substation hardened Ethernet Switches offer the industry’s highest levels of:

• Reliability – MTBF > 500,000 Hrs
• Ruggedness – Operating Temperature (-40°C to +85°C)
• Immunity – Zero-Packet-Loss™ technology for high EMI environments.
• Performance – Gigabit performance with eRSTP™ for ultra high speed (5ms/hop)
  network fault recovery.
• Security – IEEE 802.1x port based network access control coupled with Radius
  password management.

An example of RuggedCom’s technological leadership in Industrial Ethernet was the introduction of the RS969. The RS969 was the world’s first fully managed industrial Ethernet switch with an IP66/67 rating for immunity to high-pressure water jets and immersion in water.

The RS969 was also the world’s first Industrial Ethernet switch to offer IP66/67 rated fiber optical gigabit connectivity allowing for the creation of fault tolerant gigabit rings capable of spanning large areas (up to 90km per hop) while providing immunity to electromagnetic interference commonly found in industrial environments. The RS969 also offers Class 1 Div 2 certification for hazardous locations and optional dual redundant power supplies for applications requiring high availability.

RuggedRouter^® and Cyber Security

Cyber Security from the corporate network to the plant floor or the SCADA system is of critical importance in protecting your critical plant infrastructure from malicious cyber attack or tampering. These attacks can often occur from within the plant or from the corporate network side and can bring down the entire network, unless protection and segregation from the corporate network traffic and problems are provided. RuggedCom’s Industrially Hardened RuggedRouter^® RX1000 provides integrated firewall and VPN (Virtual Private Network) protection against cyber attacks to your plant floor network.