Extension & enhancement of Ethernet line extenders

Westermo Data Communications has expanded and improved its Wolverine range of industrial Ethernet line extenders with the addition of the new DDW-225 and an enhanced version of the existing DDW-120. These rugged industrial products are part of Westermo’s extensive range of Ethernet SHDSL extenders that are used to establish reliable long distance, high-speed remote connections between simple and complex Ethernet networks using any existing twisted pair copper cables.

The DDW-225 is the first Westermo line extender to include the WeOS operating system, which is already employed in Westermo’s high performance RedFox Industrial Routing Switches. WeOS provides advanced switching and routing functionality that enable the management of complex industrial networks.

The enhanced DDW-120 is aimed at simple point-to-point applications, or as a start or termination unit, together with any of the DDW-220/221/222/225 products, in daisy-chain applications. The latest version of the extender enables data transmission rates as high as 15.3 Mbit/s in both directions, and transmission distances of over 10km, depending on cable quality. This increased data transmission rate will help meet the ever increasing demands for bandwidth from applications such as transmitting high definition video from remote sites.

The new product supports two SHDSL interfaces and has a built in four port managed Ethernet switch, enabling users to build complete Ethernet networks with daisy chains and ring topologies. Suitable for use in extremely harsh industrial environments, the device offers a data transfer rate of 5.7 Mbit/s in both directions, and transmission distances of up to 15km. This makes it especially useful for applications such as railway trackside, tunnels, highways, harbours, power stations and extended industrial plants.

The DDW-225 also includes the company's unique FRNT (Fast Recovery of Network Topology) technology, the fastest protocol on the market to re-configure a network in the event of any failure of a link or hardware, which provides support for redundant rings. The DDW-225 can also support multiple rings, with a FRNT ring running from the SHDSL interface and a RSTP ring from the switch port. Device functionality, including VLAN, Static Routing, Layer 3 switching, IGMP Snooping Firewall, SNMP V3 and VPN support all help improve bandwidth support and network security.

The DDW-120 is designed to be transparent for multicast addressing, is suitable for VLAN networks, allows VPN (Virtual Private Network) pass-through for IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) and can be used with protocols like Modbus®/ TCP and PROFINET® I/O. The DDW-120 is very simple to install, with no software configuration required. When long or poor cabling is used the settings can be adjusted via DIP-switches for optimised performance. The unit is also supplied with an advanced diagnostic utility that allows the installer to analyse the quality of the line and the connection status.

As with other products in the Wolverine series, both models are suitable for tough industrial environments. The rugged units can operate in a wide temperature range and total galvanic isolation and transient protection are standard for all interfaces. The line interface is also equipped with extensive protection against over-voltages and transients.