My TN Connection

The IEEE Power & Energy Society recently held its annual General Meeting on July 25th – July 29th, in Minneapolis, MN. The topic of this year’s meeting was: “Power Systems Engineering in Challenging Times”. Being a member of the IEEE and having the event in our backyard this year offered the opportunity for Chris Koch, a Principal Architect at Transition Networks, to attend this multi-day event.

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Transition Networks recently had a successful exhibition at Ethernet Europe 2010, hosted by Light Reading, in London. The event’s primary focus of covering Carrier Ethernet network technologies and services within Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) continued to be a very hot topic and was widely attended by service providers and enterprises alike. Vice President of Worldwide Sales Operations, Dave Stenger, had the opportunity to sit down with Light Reading and highlight what Transition Networks is doing to support the ever evolving Carrier Ethernet market.

Transition Networks OAM/IP display at the SuperComm 2009 show in Chicago was designed to show the multiple levels of remote management available to service providers with Transition Networks products. The display showed products with basic remote monitoring features feature like: Link Pass Through and Far End Fault, to our most advanced remote management features such as: 802.1ag and Y.1731. The display had chassis based products, switches and stand-alone Network Interface Devices to showcase the wide range of products and capabilities available when using Transition Networks OAM/IP products.

Keep tuned for more insightful information or visit www.transition.com for more information.

Industrial Ethernet is a plant process and control specific technology, which is focused on the production techniques that are used to help make a company profitable through their manufacturing process.  Over the last couple of years, Ethernet seems to have gained momentum over other limiting proprietary protocols.  Industrial Ethernet environments often involve many types of unknown, hazardous environments and factors that can strongly influence the overall operation of standard Ethernet devices. In fact, Industrial Ethernet supports many crucial factors that are used when a loss of control does occur.  The result could potentially cause serious disasters or even in some extreme cases, the loss of life, property or serious financial damage.  In hazardous environments like oil, gas and chemical production, this can be especially true. A single issue can cost upwards of $1 million dollars a day at some companies, so it’s easy to understand why Industrial Ethernet has a more demanding focus on the potential for component failures, reliability and other problems that will need to be resolved quickly before serious loss occurs.
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Recently, I came across an interesting application, and I realized an indirect way of using a feature common to all of Transition Networks managed Industrial Ethernet switches.  I am referring to the Fault Alarm Output. 

The Fault Alarm Output

All of Transition Networks’ managed industrial Ethernet switches incorporate a Fault Relay Alarm Output.  This provides a hardwired mechanism for warning when power or one/any of the Ethernet ports loses its link status.  In a commercial or office-grade piece of equipment this function is typically not needed:  a downed network connection will pretty quickly be communicated to the IT personnel by humans; but in an industrial environment this may not occur.  The installation could be remote, say at a well-head, or pump house.  If the network fails an operation may be interrupted or cease, resulting in equipment damage, underutilized resources, or loss of revenue.  A signal from the equipment could be tied to a local alarm system, or even a device that could communicate the alarm remotely.  This is the intended use of the Fault Alarm Output.
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