Industrial Networking Solutions

The Fourth industrial revolution has been all about increasing the connectivity of utilities on the plant floor. It doesn’t matter in which industry it is being applied, the focus is always on integrating information technology and operational technology into the line of business.

Said connectivity of utilities achieves utility communications which form the basis of any Industrial IoT setting. These utility software tools allow personnel to access data from a connected network to pinpoint exactly where outages if any have occurred.

Upon identification of mishaps, field teams can be effectively dispatched by sending information directly from the centralized network.

What Is a Networking Solution?

Over the past couple of years, it has referred to networks of devices for process control, industrial automation, industrial ethernet, machine-to-machine networking, and in this case, the Industrial  Internet of Things.

With that in mind, an industrial network is a network that deals with the transfer of data on a large scale. To facilitate said data transfer, a network has to allow connectivity between various utilities and devices across a large space and enable communication between them to transfer vast amounts of data.

Before I get into some industrial networking solutions you can deploy, here are some of the major industrial applications:

Major Applications

Real-Time Location Tracking

Satellite navigation systems have a great impact on our everyday lives – think about how helpful the GPS in your navigation is. Satellite navigation systems have been in use to track and locate devices for decades now with two major drawbacks:

They only work outdoors and are only accurate to about 10 meters. These disadvantages make them unsuitable for industrial settings where precision is key. On top of that, machinery and equipment are often indoors. Here is where Industrial IoT comes to the rescue.

Using network signals that can penetrate buildings, manufacturers and enterprises can accurately map industrial and logistic processes and analyze them with software.

Predictive Maintenance

By obtaining status data and analyzing usage statistics from equipment, an organization can be more proactive about maintenance, reducing the possibility of unscheduled maintenance and increasing machinery life span.

Predictive maintenance offers a lot of advantages like knowing the current state of machines. Insights from predictive maintenance allow you the luxury of predicting and/or avoiding failures.

Industrial Networking Solutions You Can Apply

Fieldbus

Fieldbus is a one-size-fits-all term for solutions designed for real-time distributed control. This solution is mainly implemented in the manufacturing industry. Fieldbus solutions are very durable. The communication standards in Fieldbus are designed specifically for industrial applications so they are developed to be durable, robust, and able to withstand extreme physical conditions.

Fieldbus networks use short signal paths with increased interference protection, which improves network stability and reliability. Most Fieldbus solutions have been around for a while now so they are standardized. This makes it easy to implement equipment from different manufacturers into one system.

On the not-so-sunny side of Fieldbus solutions, there are high costs of equipment. However, the costs of installing the equipment are quite low. Be that as it may, the actual network equipment will leave a decent hole in your wallet.

Most Fieldbus solutions operate at data transmission rates of hundreds of Kbps. Matter of fact, only a few standards can reach speeds of over 10Mbps. This makes utility communications a bit slow.

Fieldbus networks are heavily dependent on complex proprietary manufacturer equipment. As such, they demand professionals who specialize in just that building, installation, and maintenance.

Wireless

Implementing wireless solutions involves technologies we are familiar with like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The major advantage of implementing wireless solutions is there is no need for additional wiring when adding a new piece of equipment – after all, it is wireless. This makes network management easy and efficient.

Scaling up is also very easy because all that needs to be done is to extend the reach of the wireless network through repeaters. The major downside to wireless solutions is the fact that the performance is sometimes unstable, with environmental noise in the propagation path of the signal.