Industrial Networking Equipment for Harsh Environments

Within the wide range of network devices that exist today, there is a very specific group that offers connectivity in specific environments. These environments are characterized by their harshness due to vibration, impacts, climatic conditions, and even electrical noise.

These are industrial environments, among which the following are some examples:

• Energy: Perimeter security in solar plants or connectivity for electric vehicle charging stations.
• Smart City: Calibration and traffic signaling, connectivity for lockers or video surveillance.
• Transportation: Location and monitoring of vehicles and/or internet access for customers.
• Factories and Industries: PLC and automaton connectivity.

Industrial network equipment can also be classified according to its operation or use; there are different types of routers and different types of switches. However, in both cases the requirements to be met by the equipment are the same:

• Reliability and Durability: regarding hardware, the devices must withstand harsh working conditions, and regarding software, they must be operational at all times without loss of access and connectivity.
• Special functions: The ability to control other devices and processes such as the aforementioned automatons and PLCs. For these cases it is important that routers have serial port interfaces such as RS-232 and RS-485.
• Scalability: There are many environments in which the number of routers or switches must be scalable and operational without complexity. An example is transport environments, where it is common to use a network device for each vehicle and there may be a large number of vehicles.

Visiotech offers a wide range of industrial equipment with some well known manufacturers such as Teltonika. The range of Teltonika routers can be divided into routers with 3G, 4G or 5G connectivity and ethernet routers whose output to the Internet is obtained through the RJ45 port. One of the main values of Teltonika Networks routers is its RutOS operating system based on OpenWRT. This operating system is subjected to a large number of cybersecurity tests to eliminate possible vulnerabilities. In addition, the web interface of this operating system makes it possible that no great skills or knowledge are required for its implementation. Another important aspect is the Teltonika RMS cloud platform that provides easy and centralized remote management and configuration of the devices.

Teltonika equipment is not the only option for industrial environments. Visiotech's portfolio also includes 3G, 4G and 5G routers from Milesight. Milesight routers are always a safe bet due to their great value for money in terms of functionality and cost. These devices have a very efficient firmware regarding resource consumption, with which the main needs of protocols and software are covered. A differential point of these units is that, in practically all their ranges, there are versions with PoE Out ports that allow powering cameras and other network elements. The simplest range called Lite with the UR32L model and the more advanced ranges called Pro and Ultra with the UR32, UR35 and UR75 models provide solutions for all types of projects and installations.

Visiotech continues to expand its range of industrial equipment to provide a complete solution for scenarios that require robust and reliable equipment.