IT in Manufacturing


New operating system for Hirschmann switches

February 2013 IT in Manufacturing

IAC has introduced to the EMEA region an entirely new operating system for the managed switches in its Hirschmann product program – HiOS. The new HiOS operating system was specially developed to meet requirements of the automation sector, allowing Hirschmann (a Belden Brand) to further extend its range of applications for Industrial Ethernet switches.

“The performance of this operating system will set a new benchmark for the automation sector,” says product manager Jürgen Schmid. “It permits the use of intelligent infrastructures in time-critical applications which were previously exclusively a hard-wired domain with point-to-point connections. In a transformer substation scenario, for example, this allows sensors and controllers to be securely connected to the network via Ethernet.”

In addition to numerous management and diagnostic options, both the standard and advanced versions provide precise time synchronisation compliant with IEEE 1588v2, plus a variety of redundancy protocols. With zero switchover times, the parallel redundancy protocol (PRP) and high-availability seamless redundancy (HSR) methods ensure smooth production processes. Comprehensive security mechanisms protect networks against attacks and operating errors, thereby contributing to high network availability. In addition to this, the advanced version provides additional quality of service functions such as DiffServ, VLAN extensions and security mechanisms such as access control list (ACL) and IEEE802.1x multi-client authentication.

Both operating system versions can currently be used with switches belonging to the RSP, EES and MSP series. In the future they will be employed in all new managed switches developed for the Hirschmann brand.

Supported by both the standard and advanced versions, management protocols include Telnet, SSHv2, HTTP, HTTPS, TFTP, SFTP and SNMP v1/v2/v3. In addition to PRP and HSR, redundancy protocols include media redundancy protocol (MRP), fast MRP and rapid spanning tree protocol (RSTP). Security mechanisms include MAC-based port security, authentication (IEEE802.1x), guest/unauthenticated VLAN, radius client and restricted management access. Other security features are local user accounts; various privilege levels; management authentication via radius; account locking; configurable password policy and login attempts; audit trail; CLI/SNMP logging; and HTTPS-certified management. 

For more information contact Raine Sadie, IAC, +27 (0)12 657 3600, [email protected], www.iacontrol.co.za



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