Today's Automation News Headlines from Automation.com

June 29, 2011 – GarrettCom introduced its Gigabit-only switch with 16 combo ports for copper and/or fiber ports and optional Layer 3 switching software. The Magnum 12KX Gigabit Managed Switch, with advanced bandwidth capacity, is a workhorse backbone switch with applications in all four of GarrettCom’s target markets: power utilities, surveillance and security, transportation, and heavy industry. With Layer 3 switching capability, based on high-performance routing using Layer 3 addressing information, the 12KX will more rapidly route large amounts of data in applications using complex networking techniques such as VLANs or multicast routing strategies.

The GarrettCom Magnum 12KX Gigabit Managed Switch can be used in combination with Magnum 10KT Managed Switches and Magnum 10ETS Managed Terminal Servers, both announced earlier this year, to allow network architects to create industrial networks encompassing features such as precision time synchronization, high-availability Layer 2 and Layer 3 devices, serial and Ethernet connectivity, and routing flexibility such as full wire-speed IPV4 Routing Information Protocol (RIP) or Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol.

The Magnum 12KX Switch is substation hardened, able to withstand some of the most grueling industrial environments with high EMI, extended temperature range and significant atmospheric contamination. It has a non-blocking switching fabric to provide wire-speed performance on all ports, has an option to configure four ports for PoE, uses sealed-box convection cooling, and has optional single or dual internal power supplies. The 12KX switch can be synchronized via SNTP or IEEE 1588 v2 precision timing, the latter of which ensures accuracy within 30 ns on all ports. It addresses a variety of applications with environmental certifications including IEC 61850 and RoHS compliancy, and has low voltage DC as well as worldwide AC/DC voltage power input options.

Applications

• Power utilities will appreciate the 12KX for its ability to serve as a smart grid backbone switch to aggregate the increasingly large amounts of data generated by AMR (automated meter reading), demand response and other smart grid applications.
• Surveillance and security applications can leverage the 12KX’s Gb performance, PoE option, long-distance fiber connectivity options, and multicast routing and management protocols such as DVMRP, PIM-DM, IGMP and IGMP-L2 to aggregate large amounts of streaming video traffic.
• Transportation applications, such as Intelligent Traffic Systems, and applications in heavy industry can leverage the same 12KX backbone switch capabilities used by surveillance and security applications to manage data in traffic control centers and industrial plant, military, or site operations centers.

Magnum 12KX specifications
The GarrettCom Magnum 12KX Gigabit Managed Switch provides 16 combo ports with built-in small-form-factor pluggable (SFP) ports—allowing a choice of fixed 10/100/1000 BASE-TX connectivity or fiber SFPs, and has a temperature rating of -40° C to +85° C. 

“The 12KX Gigabit Managed Switch is the third major product introduced this year as we roll out our next generation of networking devices targeted to meet the demands of data-intensive industrial applications such as Smart Grid substation networks,” said Lee House, GarrettCom General Manager. “Our relationship with Belden Inc., has enabled us to step up the pace of technology deliverables as we target the increasingly sophisticated and challenging network applications resulting from the explosion of IP-enabled industrial devices.”
 
About GarrettCom
GarrettCom, Inc., Fremont, Calif., is a leading provider of industrial networking products for specialty and stressed applications with business locations in North America, Europe and India. GarrettCom specializes in mission-critical, customizable, and durable products for extreme conditions. It offers premium industrial and substation-hardened networking products such as managed or unmanaged switches, multi-protocol routers, Ethernet and serial media converters, terminal servers, cellular wireless, and serial communications. GarrettCom also offers software capabilities in the areas of cyber security, physical security, and fault-tolerance for high-availability industrial networking solutions. The company has diversified sales channels with a premier customer base, including 75 percent of the top 100 power utilities in North America and top-tier industrial system integrators worldwide. GarrettCom is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Belden Inc.