Rockwell Automation and Cisco announced a line of managed switches and media to manage real-time control and information flow throughout manufacturing and IT. The line includes Ethernet switch technology embedded in Rockwell Automation and third-party products. This technology allows flexible topologies, as well as lines of unmanaged switches and physical media. The product line has settings optimized for use in EtherNet/IP applications.
Modular Managed Switches: This line uses the current Cisco Catalyst switch architecture and feature set, along with configuration tools for secure integration with the enterprise network.
Set up is easy with comprehensive diagnostics from within the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture™. The switch can be configured using Allen-Bradley RSLogix 5000 programming software. A removable compact flash card gives one-step device replacement and default configuration.
Embedded Switch Technology for Linear & Ring Topologies: In this line, Ethernet switch technology is embedded directly into automation equipment — such as programmable automation controllers, distributed I/O and drives — for wider configuration choices, such as daisy-chain and ring topologies.
The technology offers make/break of less than 1 ms, including diagnostics. Features include IEEE-1588 time synchronization, QoS (prioritization), SFTP for ring configurations (fault-tolerance), Fixed Managed Switches:These switches feature simple setup and default configurations for EtherNet/IP. They integrate setup and diagnostic information into Logix using the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP).
Rockwell Automation, Inc.
www.ab.com/networks/architectures.html
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Filed Under: CONNECTIVITY • fieldbuses • networks • gateways, Switches