Compact Ethernet switches for rugged applications

Rugged PoE Octopus switches by Belden require less space than switches with an external power supply and are easier to install and maintain.

February 17, 2012

Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC), has added six fast Ethernet switches to the Octopus range from its Hirschmann product series. The integrated power supply unit takes up less space than designs with an external power supply and require less cabling, which reduces possible error sources while increasing the operational reliability of the connected terminal equipment.

Three of the switches are unmanaged 10-port devices. The others have nine ports and feature Hirschmann’s Layer 2 basic software, which incorporates a variety of management and security functions and fast redundancy methods. Both the 9-port and the 10-port switches are available with or without Power over Ethernet (PoE) functionality and have a 24 V or 110 V power supply unit. The PoE versions are fanless with additional cooling fins that provide effective temperature management resulting in longer lifecycles.

All six switches have robust, compact die-cast zinc housings and are designed to operate at temperatures in the range of -40 C to +70 C. They also fulfill the EMC and fireproofing requirements of the European standards that govern use in rail vehicles.

The switches measure 184 x 189 x 70 or 184 x 272 x 77 mm (width x height x depth), depending on the design, and can be mounted on a wall or directly on a machine. Their protection ratings are IP67 (9-port version) and IP54 (10-port version) and they also feature a high level of EMC and vibration resistance. The Fast Ethernet ports (10/100 BASE-TX) have D-coded M12 connections. The PoE feature supplies 15 W per connected terminal device, using the phantom power method in which the terminal equipment is powered via the same wire-pair that carries the data. This means that two-pair cabling systems can also be used. The front of the unit has LEDs that display device status and network status as well as correct function of the power supply.

The managed designs can be configured via an Ethernet interface using command line interface (CLI), DHCP relay agent option 82, HiDiscovery or V24 interface, or via the ACA11 autoconfiguration adapter. RMON, port mirroring and LLDP (Topology Discovery 802.1ab) are available for diagnostic purposes. Alarms are connected via an additional signaling contact. SNMP V2c and V3 are also supported. Redundancy methods such as HIPER Ring, MRP and RSTP ensure a high level of network availability. The supported security mechanisms include IP and MAC port security, SNMP V3, SSH V3, SNMP access settings (VLAN/IP) and access control via IEEE 802.1x.

Belden Inc.

www.belden.com 

– Edited by Chris Vavra, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com 

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