Control network router

We are installing more and more Ethernet/IP devices at our facility and are getting to the point where we need to seperate the PLC I/O, vision systems and misc devices from the plant control network. Our control network is about 35 nodes of Intellution iFix, our engineering workstations and file servers. I was hoping to get some suggestions or recommendations as to what Brand / Model of ethernet routers that you are using. I'm looking at running 100 Base TX on both sides of the router. Thanks

Sixnet has some 24 VDC switches and hubs that DIN rail mount. You can see them at SixNet's siste or at AutomationDirect.com, who recently started brand labeling them.

Are multicast packets slowing your network?

Ethernet/IP floods networks with multicast packets. Slave or endpoint receive packets that are not meant for them and this only increases their processing time. Consider a switch that has multicast filtering. These features usually come on a level 3 switch.

These are not cheap.

The info is on the net.

I just didn't think that I'm the first person to need a router between to ethernet networks. I was hoping to get a few model numbers to point me in the right direction. I don't want to spend the money to buy a router only to find out that it won't work with Ethernet/IP. I'm not looking for a switch or a hub. I need to seperate the packet intensive Ethernet/IP traffic from the control network while still being able to access the PLC's for programming and data polling.

I think Peter is correct. I don't think you necessarily need or want a router. I think a level 3 switch is really the ticket here. All you want to do is make sure that multi-cast packets don't get from the Ethernet/IP devices through to your main network. A level 3 switch will do this for you. It will not forward the multicast packets from the control side to the information side, it will do it much faster than a router and will do it at a lower cost.
I'm not 100% sure on this but I think a level 3 switch may be refered to as a managed switch by some manufacturers. If you are thinking about just an off-the-shelf commercial switch, look at www.netgear.com for their managed switches.

Keith

This quote comes from a white paper located at:www.netgear.com/pdf_docs/fsm726s_whitepaper.pdf

While you can have more than one VLAN on a switch, computers on different VLANs cannot communicate directly without going through a router (that would defeat the purpose of having a VLAN, which is to isolate a part of the network). Communication between VLANs requires a router. This requirement can enhance network security by encouraging companies to implement standard router-based security measures to restrict access as needed.

Click to expand...

Let me rephrase my original question. Is anyone using a router to control packet traffic between their PLC, Remote I/O machine level network and the control network or the office network? We need to be able to access the PLC's and vision system cameras on the machine level network from our engineering workstations on the control network. I can't imagine that we are the first facility to ever need to connect their networks together.

Ethernet/IP uses port 44818. Set up your router to ignore other
Port No's. What you have not stated is what type of Ethernet/IP you are using. Is it just PCCC encapsulation or is it CIP? If you use CIP
you need to survey the network with RSNetworx for Ethernet and in this case you would need to have a guaranteed bandwidth to achieve
deterministic network operation. (producer/consumer).
Ethernet/IP uses TCP/IP not UDP so I don't understand all this talk
about multicast messages??