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Why Westermo for Industrial Ethernet?
There is an enormous number of companies claiming to offer "Industrial Ethernet" products. Is all Industrial Ethernet created equal? Are their products truly industrial?
Ethernet is today, the most used communication standard generally and is growing rapidly within the industrial sector. Westermo offers a broad range of Industrial Ethernet, from unmanaged switches up to the most sophisticated switches on the market with implemented time-server. When Westermo says their products are Industrial Ethernet, they mean it. They offer some of the most robust products on the market today. From temperature range to isolation, when you can't afford to be down and you need something to work, regardless of the environment, Westermo's products fit that description.
Westermo is a leader in innovation for the industrial Ethernet arena, supplying basic unmanaged Ethernet switches, managed Ethernet switches, industrial Ethernet extenders, industrial routing switches and Ethernet converters. With their complete range of high temperature rated industrial devices, Ethernet can be run directly or converted to serial, fiber, 3G HSDPA, WIFI and SHDSL with their Wolverine Ethernet Extenders.
Westermo offers several product families in the Layer 2 realm for Industrial Managed Ethernet Switches:
| Lynx+110 | MDI100 | MRI128 | Viper |
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| Layer 2 Managed Industrial Ethernet | Layer 2 Ethernet for Industrial Use | Layer 2 Control Room Ethernet with Industrial Operating Specifications | IP65 Industrial Ethernet |
If you require additional features that aren't available in Layer 2 Ethernet, Westermo offers a feature packed and robust family of Layer 3 Industrial Managed Ethernet Switching Products:
| Falcon | Lynx+210 | RedFox | Viper | Wolverine |
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| ADSL / VDSL with Industrial Ethernet | Layer 3 Managed Industrial Ethernet | Layer 3 Managed Industrial Ethernet | IP65 Industrial Ethernet | SHDSL Industrial Ethernet Extender |
In addition to Westermo's extensive and feature packed Ethernet Switch / Router products, they also offer wide range of other Ethernet tools to round out their product offering, including unmanaged Etherent Switches, Routers, Power over Ethernet (PoE), Wireless Ethernet, Wireless 3G communications and Media Converters (Ethernet to Serial, Fiber to Ethernet, etc...)
Here are some of the unique features found in Westermo's Industrial Managed Ethernet Switching Products:
Fast Recovery of Network Topology (FRNT)
All are configured with Fast Recovery of Network Topology (FRNT). Westermo's unique FRNT technology is the fastest protocol on the market for providing rapid reconfiguration of your Ethernet networks as a result of link failure or hardware failure. FRNT is similar to Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) for redundancy. However, STP can only provide knowledge of neighboring switches, whereas FRNT can provide knowledge to the entire network on the ring.
Redundant Power
These units are designed to accept two independent power sources, ultimately providing a redundant power source. Ideal for mission critical applications where down time as a result of loss of power is not acceptable.
Transmission Distances Exceed the Standard
Ethernet over copper is limited to a transmission distance of 100 meters (328 feet). Westermo's range of products, go well beyond the standard.
Westermo utilizes Small Form Pluggable (SFP) transceiver slots for the RedFox and Lynx that allows for the addition of single mode, multimode and bi-directional transceivers. Distances of up to 120km can be achieved, expanding the reach of your typical Ethernet specification. The Red Fox can have up to 4 SFPs on two of their models and the Lynx can have up to 2 SFPs.
The Wolverine incorporates a 4 port Ethernet switch with connectivity between units via SHDSL. This Ethernet extender can transmit up to 15km with data rates up to 5.7 Mbit/s at shorter distances.
The DDW-120 can communicate up to 10km over existing or older communication networks using copper cables (no special connections required). Link Fault Forward (LFF) enables the DDW-120 to function in large redundant networks to determine if there has been a media failure.
The ability to communicate over distances that exceed the standard, enable the Westermo products to be utilized in the most demanding of applications:
Safety Critical Railway Control System:
To improve the safety of Poland's railway system, a new safety system that covered 100km of railway line incorporated a chain of 15 Wolverine DDW-220 SHDSL Ethernet Extenders were used to connect a number of traffic control equipment cabinets. A second phase of this safety initiative comprised 15 Wolverine DDW-221 were added alongside the tracks of the Central Rail Bus line. The SHDSL connection of the Wolverine product line can utilize existing wiring, such as twisted pair. (no need to install fiber or radio links when existing cables are available)
Highway Tunnel Emergency System:
A message sign and road barrier system to stop traffic in case of an emergency was developed using the Wolverine DDW-221 SHDSL for the A14 highway that links the Paris business district . There are a total of 8 tunnels throughout this 13km stretch of highway. At each tunnel a road barrier system and sign were developed to stop traffic. The Lynx Ethernet Switches were used to provide a backbone for the Wolverine DDW-221 SHDSL sub-networks. Both products utilize the FRNT redundancy protocol, enabling a redundant system that provides high availability, reliability and safety.
Gas and Energy Distribution:
A large number of gas-substations in Amsertam utilized a total of 280 Wolverine DDW-100 Ethernet Extenders (creating 140 point to point connections to remote locations) communicated up to 12km, were connected to 6 Wolverine DDW-221 SHDSL Ethernet Extenders configured for redundant ring. The requirement of this application was not only to regulate the gas distribution network, but also monitor real-time usage, alarms and flow measurement. This information would enable Alliander to provide better service to its customers while at the same time reducing costs. These units interfaced with the Remote Terminal Unit that generated the information and transmitted the information back using existing cabling from Allianders own telecom and signaling cable network. Through additional testing, Alliander was able to obtain transmission distances of up to 17km. The impact of this project has benefited 2.5 million customers in Amsterdam.
Approvals
The RedFox Ethernet products offer many approvals relating to environmental conditions, Ethernet technologies, resiliance, IP routing, firewall, manageability, and SNMP / MIB support. A level 3 Ethernet product for the Industrial world. In addition to all these features, Red Fox also includes 256 bit encription.
Galvanic Isolation
You will notice a term frequently used with all Westermo products...galvanic isolation. What does this mean?
Galvanic isolation is the principle of isolating functional sections of electric systems so that charge-carrying particles cannot move from one section to another, i.e. there is no electric current flowing directly from one section to the next. Energy and/or information can still be exchanged between the sections by other means, however, such as by capacitance, induction, electromagnetic waves, optical, acoustic, or mechanical means.
Galvanic isolation is used in situations where two or more electric circuits must communicate, but their grounds may be at different potentials. It is an effective method of breaking ground loops by preventing unwanted current from travelling between two units sharing a ground conductor. Galvanic isolation is also used for safety considerations, preventing accidental current from reaching the ground (the building floor) through a person's body. (Source = Wikipedia)
A lightening strike to your Ethernet switch can cause enormous damage.
Without Galvanic Isolation, all ports on your Ethernet device would be destroyed , including the device itself.
Without Galvanic Isolation, the devices attached to your Ethernet ports would be destroyed.
The answer to this question ultimately answers the next question, why would I need galvanic isolation. It would be similar to having anti-lock brakes on your vehicle. You may never use them, but when you need them, they are there. This is the same with galvanic isolation. You may never use it, but it is there if you ever need it.
Conclusion
The breadth and intelligence of the Ethernet products offered by Westermo have been used in the most demanding of applications where any downtime or loss of information could be critical, even fatal. You will likely find a cheaper product that will do most of what you are looking to accomplish with your Industrial Ethernet network, however, what will the consequences be if...
Can you afford to be without your network?
Westermo also offers wireless Ethernet, 3G with Ethernet, unmananged Ethernet switches and Ethernet media converters for serial and fiber. All of these products extend the standard Ethernet communications capabilities of 100 meters and can be used in conjunction with the Ethernet switching products listed above. A product table below will take you to other pages in the ESI web site providing product information and downloads.
To learn more, or for a quote, Contact ESI.
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