Topologies and Redundancy

In the office environment the requirements for fault tolerance are not as pronounced as in industry. If a production plant is not running due to a faulty network, this down-time would result in enormous costs. Industrial-rated components and fast redundancy mechanisms keep plant downtimes to a minimum, thereby drastically reducing costs in the event of a fault.

To provide redundancy, a ring topology is often chosen in Industrial Ethernet networks. This contrasts with the star topology typically found in office environments.

The ring topology offers a series of advantages:

• Fast reconfiguration time (< 500ms) and therefore faster than STP (Spanning Tree) and RSTP (Rapid Spanning Tree).
• Up to 50 switches in a ring, allowing both small and very large networks to be realised.
• Reduced cabling installation resulting in cost savings.
• Clear and straightforward structured cabling.
• Plants can be expanded while in operation.