Precautions for Industrial Switch Networking

The Industrial Switch specialty designs the scheme to consider the flexible and multi-terminal industrial production and application requirements. Its networking scheme method focuses more on the loop design scheme. The loop has the difference between single ring and multi-ring. In addition, there are also the exclusive loop protocols for each manufacturer's design scheme based on STP and RSTP, such as RingOn, RingOpen open-loop transfer function, FRP ring, turbo ring, etc.

Different enterprises will face different problems when carrying out industrial switch networking, and medium and large enterprises will face more problems. The industrial switch networking is relatively strict, which will also directly affect the stability and efficiency of the work in the later stage. Therefore, it is necessary to judge the feasibility of the scheme through multiple understanding in the early stage. What should be paid attention to when using the industrial switch networking?

1. Network expansion and sustainable development

In the future, the industrial switch must be connected to the local e-government network. At this time, in addition to the security of its own network, it must also consider the interoperability with other relevant industries and the government. It may need a variety of features to achieve secure access to different private networks. In some industries, networks need to run a variety of services with different security levels, and the requirements for resources are also different. At this time, it may be necessary to encrypt individual services or even make special tunnel transmission, so it depends on whether the industrial switch supports it.

2. Business support flexibility

Some networks need to perform asymmetric access control on the servers inside the network, that is, only accept access requests from outside but cannot send requests to the outside network, which is conducive to preventing the server from being used as a hacker tool or causing disclosure. The router can judge the status of the relevant session based on the ACL configuration so that it can only enter and exit. The low-end industrial switch cannot realize this service because all packets are forwarded in ASCI. Therefore, the industrial switch configuration should be improved as far as possible to improve the service flexibility during networking.

3. Security

The loss caused by network viruses is increasing. If the exit equipment of a network does not have a certain firewall function, the risk is multiplied. The low-end industrial switches basically do not have firewall features, and the ACL access control function is also weak. For routers, even the low-end router also supports state-based ACL control, which allows users to filter and configure according to the types and characteristics of network viruses, You can also limit the number of links per IP address to prevent exceptions, so you must pay attention to the safety of industrial switches.

4. Compatibility of industrial switch networking of different manufacturers

When industrial switches from different manufacturers form the same ring network, if they use private ring network protocols, they cannot be interconnected. One party needs to change the protocol to adapt to the other party. This adaptation is based on the fact that all private protocols are STP-based and use BPDU messages to realize data transmission in the ring network. Therefore, it is only necessary to modify the format of BPDU. The advantage of this scheme is that there is no need to adjust the equipment in the network. The disadvantage is that the private ring network protocol needs to be provided by the used switch, and every time a new manufacturer enters, it will have the same problem. Therefore, this scheme is not recommended. The best solution is that all the industrial switches in the whole network use RSTP protocol to build a fully open, fully compatible and highly scalable network.

In addition, when using the industrial switch for networking, we must consider its comprehensive cost. If the comprehensive cost is too high, and the later service is not up to the standard, it will damage the interests of the enterprise. At the same time, we must pay attention to the reliability of the network. In order to ensure the stability of the industrial switch communication, some must choose a reliable network. If the selected network is unstable and reliable, it is easy to cause communication failure, increase maintenance costs, and reduce work efficiency.