Why Should The Industrial Field Choose Industrial Network Switch?

Why should the industrial field choose the appropriate industrial network switch instead of the cheap commercial switch? We can determine the necessity of choosing industrial network switches in the industrial field from the following aspects.

Real time

In industrial control systems, real-time can be defined as the measurability of the system's response time to events. That is to say, after an event occurs, the system must respond within a predictable time range. However, the industry has very strict requirements for real-time data transmission. Data updates are usually completed within tens of milliseconds. Similarly, due to the CSMA/CD mechanism in Ethernet, data must be retransmitted in case of conflicts, with a maximum of 16 attempts. Obviously, this conflict resolution mechanism is at the cost of time. In addition, once the line is disconnected, even if it is only a few seconds, the whole production may be stopped and even equipment and personal safety accidents may occur.

Certainty

Because the MAC layer protocol of Ethernet is CSMA/CD, this protocol makes the network conflict more obvious, especially when the network is overloaded. For an industrial network, if there are a lot of conflicts, the data must be retransmitted for many times, which greatly increases the uncertainty of communication between networks. The uncertainty from one place to another in industrial control network will inevitably lead to the degradation of system control performance.

Reliability

Because the original design of Ethernet is not based on industrial network applications. When it is applied to the industrial field, its reliability will inevitably be reduced in the face of bad working conditions and serious line to line interference. In the production environment, the industrial network must have good reliability, recoverability and maintainability. In other words, when any component in the network system fails, it will not lead to the collapse and paralysis of applications, operating systems and even network systems.

The industrial network switch has considered the complex situation in the industrial field in the design, so that it can better adapt to the industrial environment and play the role of transmission.

Differences between Industrial Network Switch and Common Switch

The function of industrial network switch is closer to industrial network communication, such as interconnection with various field buses, redundancy of equipment, real-time performance of equipment, etc. The difference of performance is mainly reflected in the difference of adapting to the external environment parameters. In addition to many particularly harsh environments such as coal mines and ships, industrial environments also have special requirements on EMI (electromagnetic compatibility), temperature, humidity, dust prevention, etc. Among them, temperature has the most extensive impact on industrial network equipment.

1. Industrial network switch adopts highly reliable industrial grade special components. Industrial network switch requires strict selection of IC and components, and can withstand the detection of harsh environment. Therefore, it can adapt to industrial grade environment and support industrial applications in various harsh environments.

2. The industrial network switch supports fast redundant ring network technology, and the self-healing time in case of network interruption can be less than 30ms. Although commercial switch products can also form redundant ring network, the self-healing time is more than 1s, which cannot meet the use of industrial environment.

3. Industrial network switches have strong anti-interference performance, can work in harsh electromagnetic environment, and have a high level of protection against lightning, water, corrosion, impact and static electricity, while commercial switches do not have these characteristics.

4. The industrial network switch is suitable for wide temperature environment. The main chip and components of the industrial network switch are selected according to the industrial quota standard. The structure is made of aluminum alloy metal shell, and through professional heat dissipation design, the heat dissipation performance is outstanding. It can work normally within the temperature range of - 40 ℃ -+80 ℃, and can adapt to complex temperature environment. However, the selection quota of components of commercial switch products is civil grade, which can only work in the range of 0 ℃ -+50 ℃, and cannot meet the working requirements in harsh weather.

5. The industrial network switch adopts redundant power supply design. The power supply is the component with the highest failure rate of communication equipment, and the power failure generally accounts for more than 35% of the equipment failure rate. In order to avoid the trouble caused by power failure, the industrial network switch not only guarantees higher reliability in design, but also generally adopts dual power supply redundancy design to ensure stable and reliable operation of the system. However, commercial switch products generally adopt AC single power supply mode, which is not suitable for application in industrial environment.

6. Industrial network switches have a long service life. Industrial network switches use industrial grade solutions from shell materials to supporting components. Therefore, industrial network switches have higher reliability and longer service life, with a general service life of>10 years, while common commercial switches have a service life of 3-5 years. Why should we look at the service life? Because this is related to the later maintenance of the project.

Industrial network switches are mainly used in complex and demanding industrial environments (high temperature, high real-time requirements, fast transmission speed requirements, corresponding needs to be fast, etc.). They use switch technology and Ethernet transmission technology, especially the speed of Ethernet transmission. During the design of Ethernet, the industrial network switch adopts the storage conversion exchange mode, uses the communication speed of Ethernet, and built-in intelligent alarm design to monitor the network operation status. It also ensures the reliable and stable operation of Ethernet in the harsh and dangerous industrial environment.

Conclusion: The industrial network switch is more rigorous in hardware design and component selection, with higher protection level, which can adapt to a wide range of working environment temperature, and can also provide excellent industrial quality such as vibration resistance, dust prevention, lightning protection, moisture resistance, etc. In addition, it integrates various rich protocols such as routing, switching and security, and supports public Ethernet multi ring protection technology (ERPS), greatly improving the flexibility of networking. As the infrastructure of network deployment, industrial network switches provide the possibility of network access in industrial sites, and also provide a solid foundation for the Internet transformation of traditional industries and manufacturing industries.