Technical information

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Management
Technical information
Ethernet network
Infrastructure
Management
Ethernet devices in general (end-of-line devices and cabling devices) can be divided
into two categories: unmanaged and managed devices.
b Unmanaged devices are those devices for which there is no option to congure or
control any of the device parameters.
b Managed devices are those devices whose parameters can be congured or
controlled (managed) and their internal data can be accessed.
The ConneXium product line offers both types of device.
There is also a third, unspecied category of device, which is normally classed as a
managed device. However, there is one major difference: although this device allows
access to its internal data, it cannot be controlled and/or congured.
Managed devices
Managed devices offer the following features:
b Trafc optimization and ltering - The aim is to increase the bandwidth, or the
trafc capacity in a network (some of the features in this area are message and port
priority, ow control, multicast ltering, broadcast limiting, IGMP snooping, Vlan, etc.).
b VLAN - A virtual LAN (VLAN) consists of a group of network participants in one or
more network segments who can communicate with each other as if they belonged
to the same LAN.
VLANs are based on logical (instead of physical) links. The biggest advantage of
VLANs is their possibility of forming user groups based on the participant function
and not on their physical location or medium.
Since broad/multicast data packets are transmitted exclusively within a virtual LAN,
the remaining data network is unaffected. VLAN can also serve as a security
mechanism to block unwanted Unicast messages.
b Security - This feature helps the user protect the switch from unauthorized access
that could result in changes in its conguration and impact the trafc going through
the switch (some of the features in this area are port security, read/write community
name, etc.).
Users can also set up the switch so that it blocks messages coming from
unauthorized “device” source addresses connected to the switch.
b Time synchronization - This feature allows all devices in a network to be
synchronized according to the time.
b Network redundancy - This helps to develop high availability applications.
b Dual ring switch (DRS) - These switches are provided with predened settings to
optimize communication performance and help save time in Ethernet RIO
architectures with Modicon Quantum and Modicon M580 automation platforms.
DRS switches are mandatory to build Ethernet RIO architectures in which sub-rings
have to be connected to the main Ethernet ring.
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