"When we talk about switches for future applications in the factory automation environment, we have to take a completely different view to the office world," says Karl-Heinz Richter, adding: "For example, switches provide comparatively little information on network diagnostics - i.e. the network status itself. Permanent monitoring, telegram analysis, anomaly detection, warning of failure - these are all requirements in terms of predictive maintenance that need to be covered in addition to the actual switch function." Added to this: As smart sensors make their information available to several consumers at the same time and communication will increasingly "bypass the controller" in the future, Richter is convinced that the controller will lose its central position in network monitoring and will only be available for this task to a limited extent.

The Promesh P9 as the basis for a completely new generation of infrastructure components, which must provide more and more diagnostic functions in addition to controlling data streams.

© Indu-Sol

Indu-Sol is now responding to these developments with its own switch development - the Promesh P9. According to Richter, this is characterized, among other things, by its user-oriented user interface. In the web interface, important information on port status and port assignment is available at a glance directly on the start page and is visualized for the system operator in familiar traffic light colors. For example, in addition to the basic availability and neighborhood detection of a port, the network load, discards and errors are recorded and permanently compared with preset trigger values. Alarm management via a potential-free contact, e-mail or central SNMP query ensures a timely warning before a failure occurs. All irregularities are documented internally and recorded as a snapshot.

Leakage currents at a glance

In addition, the development of the Promesh P9 addresses an issue that - according to Richter - "hardly ever occurs in the IT sector, but must be taken into account in complex automation technology: Equipotential bonding currents that are discharged into the switch via the shield of the data lines. These can lead to irregularities in data traffic and even destroy devices." A specially integrated measuring circuit in the Promesh P9 permanently monitors these so-called leakage currents for this purpose and saves the values, including the frequency curve, if they are exceeded.

Continuous measurement over the entire frequency spectrum (20 kHz) and recording of average values (RMS measurement) and peak values (peaks) make the causes and correlations of EMC interference traceable. If this leakage current exceeds a value of 200mA (effective) or 400mA (peak), this poses a risk to interference-free communication and a targeted warning is issued. With this function, the new switch also takes into account a draft recommendation from the Profibus & Profinet International (PI) user organization on the subject of functional earthing and shielding. It clearly states the requirement to provide a monitoring option for checking the current shield current level.

However, the development of the Promesh P9 means more than just an expansion of the product portfolio for Indu-Sol. "Over the next few years, we will be focusing more on network responsibility for our customers in addition to providing services and will also be aiming to offer complete network equipment in the OT sector," announces Richter, adding: "Whether independently or in alliances with like-minded medium-sized companies will become clear in the near future. However, it is clear to us that we need more than just a switch for our next development steps. The next step could be our Fog Cloud solution, which is currently under development."

The functions of the Promesh P9 at a glance

• Full Profinet functionality
• 9 x 100 Mbit/s RJ45 ports
• Leakage current monitoring incl. frequency spectrum
• Graphical display of port utilization (accurate to the millisecond)
• Optimized shield contacting
• Display of discards on the web interface
• Simple device replacement with removable media
• Mirror port, VLAN, SNTP, SMTP and DHCP
• Redundant power supply