Why Must Industrial Ring Network Switches Be Used In Industrial Sites?

Ring network switch is a special kind of switch. Because the mainstream ring network switches are Industrial Switches, they can generally be called industrial ring network switches. So, what is an industrial ring network switch?

Ring network, as its name implies, is a closed network cycle. It is different from ordinary Ethernet switches. Once a ring is formed, a broadcast storm will occur. A link on the ring network is disconnected, which will not affect the transmission of data on the network. Therefore, the ring network structure has its own advantages, such as redundancy and reliability.

The ring network switch can be formed into a ring network, and the endings are connected to form a "ring". Each switch has two ports (network ports) for ring formation, and a ring network topology is formed between switches by hand. Its advantage is that when a link on the ring network is disconnected, it will not affect the data forwarding or communication on the network. Therefore, ring network switches are introduced in many industrial communication fields. The ring network switch adopts some special technologies to avoid the broadcast storm, and at the same time, it realizes the reliability of the ring network.

Why must industrial ring network switches be used in industrial sites?

1. Poor industrial site environment

At the beginning of design, Ethernet did not start from the application of industrial network. When it is applied to the industrial site, its stability will be reduced due to extreme working conditions, relatively serious interference between lines, etc. In the production environment, the industrial network must have good stability, recoverability, and scalability. That is to ensure that the failure of any component in a network system will not cause the collapse and paralysis of applications, operating systems, and even network systems.

The industrial Ethernet switch is designed with the complexity of the industrial site in mind, which can better meet the industrial environment and give full play to the role of industrial switches.

Industrial environment not only has many very harsh environments such as coal mines and ships, but also has special requirements on EMI (electromagnetic compatibility), temperature, humidity and dust prevention. The influence of temperature on industrial network equipment is the most extensive. The environment of the industrial site is more extreme than that of the normal environment, at least in terms of vibration, humidity and temperature. The design of the ordinary switch does not have the ability to withstand various situations in the industrial environment. The ordinary switch cannot work in such a harsh environment for a long time, and is prone to failure, which increases the maintenance cost. It is generally not recommended to use the commercial switch in the industrial environment. In order to enable the switch to be used in such a harsh environment, it is necessary to produce a switch suitable for this kind of environment. The reliability of industrial switches includes power failure, port interruption, alarm output by relay, redundant dual DC power input, active circuit protection, over-voltage and undervoltage automatic circuit breaker protection, etc.

2. High load of Ethernet network

Because the MAC layer protocol of Ethernet is CSMA/CD, the protocol promotes conflicts on the Internet, especially when the network load is too large. For an industrial network, if there are a lot of contradictions, it is necessary to retransmit data information for many times, which will greatly increase the uncertainty of communication between networks. In the industrial control network, this kind of uncertainty from one place to another will inevitably lead to the reduction of system control performance.

3. Strict real-time performance of industrial data

In industrial control systems, real-time can be defined as the predictability of the response time of a system to an event. After an event occurs, the system must react within an accurately predictable time period. However, the real-time standard of data information transmission in industry is very strict, and data information update is often implemented within tens of milliseconds. Also, because of the CSMA/CD mechanism in Ethernet, when a conflict occurs, data information needs to be uploaded again, which can be tried as many as 16 times. It is not difficult to see that such conflict resolution mechanisms cost time. In addition, in case of disconnection, even if it takes only a few seconds, it may lead to the termination of all production and even equipment and life safety accidents.

Summary: The industrial ring network switch realizes that when any point on the ring is disconnected, the normal operation of the entire network will not be affected, and the redundancy and reliability of the industrial network operation are met.