High availability infrastructure for different industries

With the spread of Ethernet into almost all areas of automation, network fail-safety has taken on a growing importance. Belden’s Industrial Networking business counts as one of the technology and market leaders for Industrial Ethernet. The products marketed under the Hirschmann™ brand name range from layer 2 and layer 3 switches, and industrial standard security and WLAN systems, to specialist Network Management Software. Hirschmann™ employs a bundle of measures in order to implement high-availability protected data networks that meet the stringent demands of, for example, manufacturing, the transport sector or the power supply industry. These primarily include reliable hardware, new redundancy methods, protection again cyber attacks and comprehensive network management.

“We want our customers to sleep easy, secure in the knowledge that their network infrastructure guarantees reliable internode communications at any hour of the day or night,” says Managing Director Wolfgang Schenk. For him, the most important thing for secure operation is an extremely robust equipment platform. Depending on the specific application it needs to withstand extreme temperature fluctuations, dust, vibrations and all kinds of electromagnetic disturbances without demur – and keep on doing so for many years.

That's not all, however, as Schenk explains: redundant configuration of the communications lines reliably maintains the communications even in the event of a fault, such as a damaged cable.

This is why, in addition to conventional redundancy methods, the Hirschmann™ strategy is based on two new methods: PRP (parallel redundancy protocol) and HSR (high-availability seamless redundancy). The business unit has vigorously pursued both of these, hence contributing to their international standardization. The advantage of these protocols is their provision of a seamless real-time switchover to an alternative transmission route, i.e. without any loss of data.

Alongside wired Ethernet, many users also opt for wireless WLAN technology as a way of implementing an alternative transmission route. Dr. Peter Fröhlich, responsible for Hirschmann™ Research and Development comments: “The WLAN transmission and receiving modules used for PCs are suboptimal when it comes to industrial applications. We have therefore made significant investments in high-frequency measurement and simulation technology to enable us to explore our own entirely new ideas.” The business unit is continually expanding its portfolio of robust access points and clients. This allows not only higher transmission rates to be achieved, but also, by increasing the number of antennas, improved send and receive performance, particularly in an industrial environment. Incorporating our own HF circuits makes it possible to greatly improve both surge protection and immunity to other HF transmission sources.

Unfortunately, we see ourselves increasingly confronted with risks of an entirely different kind, as Eric Byres, CTO of Byres Security Inc. in Vancouver, Canada, explains. Byres Security has been a part of Belden since September 1, 2011 and specializes in protecting industrial networks against cyber attacks. “The world is a different place since Stuxnet,” observes Byres. Such attacks on the power supply, traffic control systems or production facilities could have “devastating effects”, which makes proactive protection essential. Hirschmann™ is already using Byres’ Tofino technology in the industry-standard firewalls of its Eagle range. The business unit aims to make protection against cyber attacks an integral part of every network infrastructure. “Belden is an ideal major partner for us”, says Byres. “After all, who is in a better position to distribute protection against network-borne attacks and ‘pests’ than the network provider?”

Alongside reliable hardware, redundancy and active cyber protection, the fourth strategic element of reliable network operation is network management. In its Industrial HiVision, Hirschmann™ has established a universal platform for the planning, monitoring and administration of wired and wireless networks, and the continual expansion of this is part of the business unit’s core strategy. “Managing the complexity of even small-scale networks calls for powerful tools,” stresses Wolfgang Schenk, and adds: “Although we are increasingly ‘inoculating’ our products with a certain intelligence – for instance with redundancy mechanisms configured via plug-and-play – users still like to actually see that their data traffic is all systems go.” Industrial HiVision provides this information, just as it also signals traffic congestion caused, for instance, by faulty terminal equipment. Schenk is convinced: “Since network systems grow and expand over long periods and often have a heterogeneous structure, Industrial HiVision consistently applies open standards and is therefore also ideal for administering products from different manufacturers.”

Growing network complexity also presents a challenge to manufacturers of terminal equipment. In order to make use of all the advantages of powerful network protocols, or to provide for directly linking a number of components in a line topology, advanced network connections need to be built into every device. For this reason, Hirschmann™ now also offers its device technology as an embedded solution suitable for direct integration into terminal equipment. “All the stated advantages of robust hardware – continually developing redundancy protocols, secure firewalls and connection to the powerful network management system Industrial HiVision – are now directly available to device manufacturers and hence their customers,” explains Wolfgang Schenk. Manufacturers can focus on their core competencies and the functionality of their devices, and their network connections are always up to date.