Product category:
Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications
News Release from: Moxa Technologies | Subject: EtherDevice ED6008
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 22 May 2003
Device server aids network redundancy
The EtherDevice ED6008 redundant switch features a novel network redundancy protocol called Turbo Ring, that can easily be used as the basis of a redundant Ethernet network.
In industrial automation applications, redundancy is an important factor in increasing system reliability The recovery time of the traditional Spanning Tree Protocol (802.1D) is too slow to meet the requirements of real-time control and high-speed data acquisition
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 3 Apr 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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The Moxa EtherDevice Server is the first intelligent industrial Ethernet device server specially for connecting devices such as PLCs, HMIs and DCS systems in industrial field applications.
But the Moxa EtherDevice ED6008 redundant switch features a novel network redundancy protocol called Turbo Ring, that can easily be used as the basis of a redundant Ethernet network.
Turbo Ring has an ultra-high-speed recovery time, so that if any segment of the network is disconnected the automation system will return to normal in only 300ms.
It is very simple to use the ED6008's built-in Turbo Ring technology to establish an Ethernet backup ring topology.
One network segment is blocked logically, and if another segment gets disconnected, ED6008 will automatically use the backup segment to re-establish connectivity.
And with a recovery time of less than 300 ms, ED6008 keeps the HMI/Scada system running continuously.
Unlike other Ethernet standards (802.1D or 802.1W, for example), users do not need to learn how to configure complex parameters.
It is very easy to build up a Turbo Ring redundant ring in three simple steps by connecting each switch's port 8 to another EDS's port 7 to form a ring.
In a typical industrial Ethernet installation, 120 nodes would be considered an adequate deployment.
Based on critical test results, Turbo Ring can provide a very fast and reliable redundant solution for critical automation applications.
In addition, the Ring Coupling function of Turbo Ring can help control engineers to partition distributed devices into different smaller redundant rings, but in such a way that they can still communicate with each other.
Different automation applications require different levels of redundancy.
Turbo Ring provides media redundancy, and only Turbo Ring's fast 300ms recovery time is sufficient for every critical automation system (compared with Spanning Tree Protocol).
For device redundancy, system designers can construct dual Turbo Rings to provide both device and media redundancy, and with a recovery time that is still a fast 300ms.
Compare this with a typical star topology.
Star topologies generally use software logic to switch to from the primary network to the backup network, and so have a longer recovery time.
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