How Your Network Infrastructure Affect The Succes of Your Operations 

Network infrastructure devices transport the communications of services, data and applications. These devices include routers, servers, firewalls and more.

An efficient network infrastructure differs between a successful business and a failed one. Without it, your company’s input and output will suffer.

Industrial Network Design

Industrial networks are a vital part of the modernized manufacturing facility. They provide real-time data and monitoring while reducing downtime and energy usage.

They also save on maintenance costs, allowing production teams to track the condition of assets and monitor performance in real-time. Whether a field-level or control-level network, these systems are well-suited to the demands of the fast and often harsh production environment.

Several standard industrial networks are on the market today, each with benefits and drawbacks. Navigating the market and selecting the right one for your application can be challenging.

Choosing and deploying a network topology is the first step in creating an effective network infrastructure solutions New England for your industrial operation. The next step is to implement a secure, resilient network that can ride through faults in hardware or cabling without affecting the data being sent.

Industrial Network Implementation

Industrial networks connect sensors and devices throughout a factory. They also link supervisory control PCs (SCPCs) and distributed I/O controllers.

Creating an effective network infrastructure solution requires collaboration from functional teams across your business, including information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT). Early, open communication can minimize cultural differences and help your team identify risks and potential problems before they become issues.

Deterministic communications are a common requirement in many factory automation scenarios and require ultralow latency transmissions in the order of milliseconds. Time-sensitive networking technologies and protocols are the right choices for these applications.

Technology lifecycle management: Compared to enterprise systems, which typically undergo refreshes every three to five years, industrial networks experience a longer renewal cycle of up to 20 years. This slow pace of network technology evolution challenges manufacturers to keep their networks up to date.

A modern industrial IP network architecture provides timely access to data that can improve productivity, enhance safety and reduce downtime. This data helps managers track performance, maintain equipment and improve production throughput.

Industrial Network Validation

In industrial automation, communication networks are a crucial part of all processes. They connect field devices, controllers and PCs to ensure the interconnection and transfer of data.

Plant managers and control engineers request a robust network infrastructure to handle large amounts of data at high speeds to increase systems availability. It includes real-time control and monitoring of all the systems involved. For this reason, it is critical to validate the network. It ensures that it stays in compliance and continues to operate as intended.

It requires a more sophisticated approach than traditional reactive network configuration compliance checks. By implementing a validation process into the configuration change process, enterprises can ensure that every device or service operates based on a current configuration that meets a specified standard.

Industrial Network Services

Your industrial network infrastructure is a critical asset to your business. It provides a foundation for phones, email, Internet, access to your business systems and control or visibility of your manufacturing process. In addition, your industrial network may also contain specialized devices such as PLCs, RTUs, IEDs, HMIs, engineering workstations and supervisory management workstations that use technical protocols to automate control loops. The information shared across your ICS and IT networks can be susceptible and should only be transferred with security precautions. That is why the ISA 95 standard recommends different levels of networking for optimal plant operation without risking data integrity and security.