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There are many brands and types of industrial PoE switches. When choosing a switch, many factors need to be considered, such as the working environment, whether redundancy is required, network management and non-network management, future maintenance, and scalability. Generally speaking, when choosing an industrial Ethernet switch, you need to consider aspects such as reliability, real-time, security, and compatibility.
In an industrial field environment, reliability is undoubtedly the most important point.
The factors that need to be considered are The tolerance of the equipment hardware to the working environment: such as the working temperature range, EMC electromagnetic compatibility, installation, and power supply mode. Industrial Ethernet equipment is different from commercial Ethernet equipment, and generally adopts a compact design and guide rail installation method that is more suitable for on-site cabinet installation. In order to avoid equipment damage caused by the failure of rotating parts, hardware equipment with a fanless design should also be selected. In the parameter description of the product, there should be a detailed description of the operating temperature range and electromagnetic compatibility. A certificate of relevant access standards is attached.
After choosing reliable and stable hardware, you should also pay attention to the various redundancy methods that the switch can provide, as well as fast fault diagnosis and recovery.
In different application environments, the response time that the system can tolerate is very different from jitter. Data frames in automation networks will have a certain delay each time they are forwarded from one device to another. Therefore, the first thing to consider when choosing an industrial Ethernet switch is the port delay of the switch during data frame forwarding.
In a standard factory automation control system, the response time that the system can tolerate does not exceed 10 milliseconds. In order to control the cumulative delay of data frames from the top to the bottom of the system, when selecting a switch, it should be noted that the port delay of the switch should not exceed 10 microseconds.
Industrial Ethernet switches and other industrial Ethernet components should be able to communicate using standard TCP/IP protocols. In any case, there should not be any incompatibility between industrial Ethernet equipment and commercial Ethernet equipment. Corresponding to different industrial Fieldbus solutions, industrial Ethernet equipment should have the corresponding capabilities to be compatible with it. At this stage, the protocol of the ring network of the industrial switch components of various manufacturers is not the same. For expansion and compatibility considerations, users should also choose equipment with MRP media redundancy ring protocol to lay a solid foundation for future network expansion. This protocol standardizes the ring network protocol, allowing devices of different brands to be connected together to form a ring network.
Due to the openness of Ethernet, we have to consider the factor of network security in the process of building an automation network. When selecting equipment, users should choose a switch with VLAN function to facilitate the division of network functions. Through VLAN division, we can group and isolate the devices in the network based on functions to avoid man-made malicious damage or misoperation. At the same time, users can use the 802.1x function in the switch to authorize devices that need to access the network to distinguish legitimate users from illegal users.
According to actual application requirements, you need to pay attention to some other commonly used functions when choosing an industrial Ethernet switch. For example, QoS priority queues for distinguishing different business data priorities, or port mirroring functions to facilitate network fault diagnosis. But it must be noted that the more versatile the switch is not necessarily suitable for each application environment. For example, routing functions will often destroy the priority label and real-time performance of data transmission. The use of a large number of Layer 3 switches in the control layer or even the field layer will greatly increase the cost, while also destroying the application characteristics of Industrial Ethernet. Users should choose appropriate functions to purchase appropriate equipment according to their needs to avoid unnecessary waste.
The above information is provided by Power over Ethernet supplier.