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Upgraded Stratix 8000 enhances flexibility

Rockwell Automation has upgraded its Allen-Bradley Stratix 8000 modular managed industrial Ethernet switch line with advanced features designed to improve system flexibility and uptime. These enhancements include the implementation of the ‘Resilient Ethernet Protocol’ (REP), ‘Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) per port’ and the ‘Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) Sync Time Protocol’.

Compact by design, the modular Stratix 8000 is optimised for operation in both IT and manufacturing environments. The upgraded line continues to use the current Cisco Catalyst switch architecture and feature set, along with powerful configuration tools. This helps to provide secure integration with the enterprise network and using tools familiar to IT professionals.

The newly embedded REP is a high-speed ring protocol that allows switches to be connected in a ring, ring segment or nested ring segments. The protocol provides network resiliency across switches with a rapid recovery time ideal for industrial automation applications. Because REP provides a fault-tolerant network topology, networks can survive a cable break and remain in production.

DCHP per port allows the switch to assign IP addresses to end-devices connected to the switch. This feature allows for easier device replacement by eliminating the need to pull out a PC to reconfigure an end device IP address. This increases uptime, and helps reduce maintenance time and costs.

CIP Sync, which is the Open DeviceNet Vendors’ Association (ODVA)’s implementation of the IEEE 1588 precision time protocol, allows automation equipment to achieve clock synchronisation within the 100 nanosecond range. CIP Sync is an enabling technology for time-critical automation tasks, such as motion over EtherNet/IP; high-precision first-fault detection or sequence of events (SOE); accurate alarming and machine forensics for post-event diagnostics; event tracking with relevant time stamps; and predictive time-based control techniques for high-speed rejection and diverter systems. This version of the Stratix 8000 switch line supports both transparent and boundary IEEE 1588 clock technologies with a CIP interface for easy integration.

This first-of-its-kind operating system allows for easy setup and comprehensive diagnostics from within the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture system. The switch can be configured using Rockwell Software RSLogix 5000 programming software. It also automatically generates Logix tags for integrated diagnostics and includes FactoryTalk View faceplates for status monitoring and alarming. All of these features are the preferred way for controls and automation professionals to integrate networked devices.

In addition, the Stratix 8000 switches include a removable compact flash card for one-step device replacement and default configurations for the manufacturing environment. Modular and industrially rated, the product line scales from six to 26 ports, with options for copper and fibre to meet a variety of applications.