Companies that thrive today have embraced new technologies as they are unveiled. The industrial switch is a technology that helps many companies improve networking and communications. It is increasingly becoming necessary for most industrial players due to its role.
Industrial switches are instrumental in different industrial sectors, including environment protection, transport, and energy.
Adopting the switch ensures companies stay connected. As such, companies are increasingly investing in industrial switches. This network technology works best for the industrial surroundings and is a must-have. However, companies can only appreciate technology if they understand how it works.
1. Understanding Industrial Switches
An industrial switch / Power Over Ethernet (PoE) switch is a technology every industrial player needs. It delivers data transmission and electrical power to all the connected devices. Consequently, one doesn’t require an independent power source for each device used around the company.
Picking the right switch helps keep the company network running even in unstable conditions. Many companies will certainly want this kind of switch in their company because of the gains it comes with. Find out some of the positive gains of having such a switch in the company.
2. Ensures All Networks are Connected
Company networks can be delicate and sensitive yet very instrumental to its success. Each company or business needs internet reliability and device connectivity. Unfortunately, this is never guaranteed in a workforce dependent on external network providers.
However, ensuring your company has continuous network power with an industrial switch is possible. As such, all network communications will be supported by the switch, thus reducing potential points of failure. It also makes it easy to rectify things when issues go wrong.
Such reliability and continuity in connectivity are a plus for any company. Investing in industrial switches should be each company’s priority.
3. May Help Resist Harsh Environmental Conditions
All industrial switches are built to remain resilient to weather fluctuations. They work perfectly even in the hottest temperature swings. They are also perfect in areas with high moisture levels. Most commercial switches require a specific standard of temperatures to work well. Typically, they may need help in places with sharp temperature ranges.
On the other hand, industrial switches can withstand temperatures from – 40 degrees Celsius to 75 degrees Celsius. Besides that, industrial switches are also perfect for shock resistance and vibrations. Generally, they are ideal for harsh weather conditions.
Some of the best places where industrial switches work perfectly include:
- Oil and gas companies
- Factory and industrial automation
- Mining sites
- Outdoor electrical applications
- Marine installations
- Rail and intelligent transportation system
- Industrial and factory automation systems
4. Helps Reduce Interference and Noise
Usually, ordinary twisted cables work for short-span distances that are at most 100 meters. This is way below most industrial applications where longer distances are required. As such, fiber optics are preferred to cover the extra length of connectivity. Note that fiber optics can go up to 12 miles which works well for industries.
The only downside is that the electrical noise will cause network connection interference, which you do not want. Companies need to act fast and find an option that works best, and this is where industrial switches come in.
Its ability to cover a longer distance and at the same time minimizing noise levels makes it suitable in this case. Additionally, it also helps with network connectivity, especially for point-to-point connections.
5. Comes with Numerous Unmanaged Switch Options
Managed Ethernet switches work best for high-priority networks. On the flip side, low-priority networks may be sidelined. As a solution, unmanaged PoE switches are ideal for such cases as they offer a cheaper way out.
They deliver perfect connectivity that takes up to 5-10 ports concurrently. Users can easily connect one switch to another and perform packet filtering in the basic form.
6. It May Deliver Advanced Managed Switch Abilities
The managed Ethernet switch offers practically all the functionalities in unmanaged Ethernet switches. Besides that, it also comes with improved tools for network management. It is possible to use the managed switches to help with several roles as follows:
- Device mapping and Network Topography benefit more extensive, complex networks and DMS – device management system software. They can deliver visual clarity of the network topography, troubleshooting, streamlining monitoring, network maintenance roles, and cable diagnostics.
- Filtering Traffic: Managed industrial switches help to improve traffic filtering using protocols that direct multicast packets and enhance determinism to the right ports. Forwarding the packets to the exact devices helps increase efficiency and hasten communication rate throughout the network range.
- Provides Network Security: You can fully control the former port settings with managed industrial switches. This eliminates any unauthorized access and also helps offer the right level of protection against all sensitive data that moves through your network.
Advantages of Industrial Switches
Besides the uses, it helps to know the major advantage of industrial switches. This may help with the adoption of such switches. You may find a good reason to transition from commercial switches to industrial ones for the company’s benefit. Top gains include:
- Industrial switches utilize high-grade components
- Fast redundancy and a fast network ring
- They are perfect when it comes to canceling interference as they are designed to be anti-interference
- They are highly adaptable, especially concerning temperature and weather changes.
- They are perfect for power supply. Most of the time power supply is responsible for most failures in networks. Every time there is a power failure, the network disruptions increase. This is reduced significantly when using industrial switches.
- Industrial switches offer longer service life: You never have to worry about the longevity of an industrial switch. These are made of good quality materials and guarantee long-term usage so that you can save in the long run.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, industrial switches are worth investing in, especially if you have a company. Unlike other easily compromised switches, industrial switches are superior in many ways. Companies seeking stable network connectivity should consider investing in industrial switches.
