Solution for Achieving Wide Area Networks (WAN) with Guaranteed Bandwidths and High Availability Capabilities

In this entry, we will show a solution for achieving wide area networks (WAN) with guaranteed bandwidths and high availability capabilities, which offers a solution for achieving appropriate communication infrastructures for industrial environments and critical infrastructures.

Ethernet and the Industrial World

Ethernet is universally used in the office environment (IT) and is also being used massively in production environments (OT). While Ethernet offers fantastic communication functionalities and quality, a specific function is missing: static bandwidth reservation or guaranteed bandwidth.

In an office environment, sending an email may be delayed a few seconds due to the transfer of large volumes of data, and nothing happens. In an industrial environment, an application may be degraded or even fail due to the sudden loss of bandwidth (video surveillance, transport networks, power substations, communications between the control center and energy distribution sectors, etc.).

Today, the technology used to achieve guaranteed bandwidth in WAN networks is:

• SONET/SDH: is in decline and disuse. It is expensive and almost no longer manufactured.
• IP/MPLS: the majority option in the past 10 years, a robust solution although complex to configure and maintain. In addition, request and response communications can take different paths and, therefore, have a component of indeterminacy in communications.
• MPLS-TP: Simplified version of IP/MPLS with added functionalities that make it very attractive for industrial communications. In addition, it is a standard, so it is not linked to any manufacturer.

From Logitek, we want to recommend the solutions of Belden Hirschmann Dragon PTN as industrial equipment to create reliable and efficient backbone networks for the transport of mission-critical data, guaranteeing bandwidth in WAN networks thanks to MPLS-TP technology.

• Secured hardware for industrial environments (IEC61850, IEEE 1613, EN50121-4)
• Modular and expandable equipment.
  • Ethernet / MPLS up to 10Gbps
  • T1/1
  • C37.94
  • SONET/SDH
  • Serial Ports RS232, RS422, RS485, X.21, V35 / optical
  • Analog voice
• DIN rail or RACK
• -30ºC – +65ºC
• Redundant switching central unit
• Redundant and hot-swap power supply with various power supply type options.

This equipment allows the creation of backbone architectures of varied topologies to support redundant paths and high availability in communications:

• MPLS-TP (linear, star, mesh redundancy, etc.)
• ERPS (Ethernet Ring Protection Switching) for rings or multi-rings.
• MRP (Media Redundancy Protocol) most commonly used in industrial ring networks.

Three advantages of using Hirschmann equipment are:

1. A graphical tool (HiProvision) is available for the configuration and deployment of the architecture. This tool allows on-line and off-line configuration
2. Infrastructure monitoring. HiProvision offers an SNMP interface that can be used by network monitoring tools to know the status of each of the services, tunnels, links and equipment of the MPLS-TP network.
3. HiVision Hirschmann’s SNMP monitoring tool, integrates automatically with HiProvision to display all this information directly.

In summary,

• MPLS-TP is the next communication technology that will allow assigning guaranteed bandwidth for each of the mission-critical applications.
• Dragon PTN from Hirschmann are devices suitable for hostile environments for the implementation of this type of technology, guaranteeing a high ‘up-time’.
• HiProvision is a graphical software for the simple and easy deployment of the infrastructure, offering a start-up without errors and with monitoring facilities.

If you need more information, you can download this whitepaper