AMBLER, Pa., 17 Oct. 2010. MEN Micro Inc. in Ambler, Pa., is introducing the RS3 managed rugged Ethernet switch and the RS4 unmanaged Ethernet switch, each built using a durable aluminum housing and M12 connectors with eight Fast Ethernet ports per switch. The switches are for harsh-environment, mobile, and mission-critical applications such as industrial automation, trains, and construction machines.
The maintenance-free, fanless RS3 and RS4 restore themselves on their own, so if a link is temporarily unavailable, frames are sent via backup/redundant links to avoid data loss. A built-in test mechanism is included. Each switch supports full- and half-duplex operation with auto-negotiation and high-speed non-blocking store-and-forward switching. Quality of Service (QoS) with four traffic classes IEEE 802.1p and three-level 802.1x security are also supported.
The managed RS3 includes the logical segmentation of ports (802.1q VLANS). The RS4 uses an application-specific EEPROM to provide managed switch functionality, such as 802.1p priority as well as port based priority and VLAN or IEEE 802.1q IDs, with fixed settings. Both models have a service port to give authorized users simple configuration options: via a web interface, CLI, SNMP version 3 or exterior dongle for the RS3, and via an SPI for the RS4.
The aluminum housing of the convection-cooled switches measures 220-millimeter-by-130-millimeter-by-70-millimeter. Operating temperature is -40 to 70 degrees Celsius. The switches comply with EN 50155 class Tx and are e1 certified. Because there are no socketed components, the RS3 and RS4 withstand substantial shock and vibration. For more information contact MEN Micro online at www.menmicro.com.
