Product category:
Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications
News Release from: Sixnet | Subject: ET-9MS
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 05 July 2005
Industrial Ethernet switches add IGMP
and VLAN
Sixnet has enhanced its line of industrial Ethernet managed switches.
Sixnet has enhanced its line of industrial Ethernet managed switches The various models of the ET-9MS are designed for the toughest industrial environments and ensure the reliability of a network with automatic switchover on detected failure (ring topology)
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 25 Jun 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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CD covers entire communication range
The What's New page provides a quick overview on the latest advancements from Sixnet.
Upgrade path offered for development tools
Sixnet encourages existing users to keep their existing Workbench keys so they may convert existing applications on their own time frame and with no risk.
From the start, they offered QoS, RSTP, SNMP, and much more.
Now, they are even more capable than before, supporting IGMP and VLAN.
Virtual local area networks (VLANs) conveniently segregate network devices into functional groups.
This provides extra security by allowing devices to only talk to other devices within their VLAN.
It also increases network performance by keeping traffic (especially broadcasts) within the appropriate VLAN so that devices in other VLANs aren't burdened with messages they don't need to hear.
Plus it eliminates the need to run new cable if a device is moved to a different switch.
All users need to do is configure what VLAN the device should be on.
These advanced switches also support Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) for IP multicast filtering.
This is required for some control networks such as EtherNet/IP, Profinet, Foundation Fieldbus HSE and other devices such as video servers that use IP multicast messages to broadcast their data over the network.
This is efficient for getting the data to many video display clients but puts unnecessary burden on all the other devices in the network.
To remedy this, IGMP enables the Sixnet managed switches to automatically route these messages to only the appropriate ports.
These switches can passively snoop (ie IGMP snooping) on IGMP router queries and IGMP host reports to determine where to route the multicast messages.
Or they can actively send their own queries in place of an IGMP router. Request a free brochure from Sixnet ...
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