Overloaded iNET-II 900 on LAN

I got a LAN with an AB Controllogix, local HMI, few wonderware computers, hardwire remote rack, 2 unmanaged switches and a remote rack connected via iNET's. My problem is the access point iNET is getting congested with all the data being bounced around by the unmanaged switches and ping time to the wireless remote rack becomes greater than 2000ms once connected to the LAN. Networking is not my forte so I'm asking for advice, on what options I have. I have a manged switch on the way and I am hoping to use that to filter all ips except main ENBT to send/receive data to access point iNET. Is this suitable? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

My guess is that the problem is due to multicast traffic to the "hardwired remote rack" and/or faster-than-needed RPI connections to the chassis that's connected over wireless.

The first thing you can do requires no networking experience: go check the configuration for each Connection in RSLogix 5000 for the "hardwired" I/O rack and see if it's set for Unicast connection or not.

Makes notes of all the connections (Rack Optimized and Module type) to that chassis.

If you want to learn a little networking, download and install the excellent freeware protocol analyzer Wireshark.

Connect to any spot in the network and do a capture using your PC's main Ethernet network adapter, and zip and post the results. Ideally include a short summary of the IP addresses of the devices on your network, too.

I'll take a short step back and make some comments for perspective.

I use managed switches for their diagnostic abilities and sometimes because I have to set up things like multicast filtering.

That might not be necessary in your case: careful configuration of your ControlLogix system to use unicast instead of multicast protocols might give you performance equal to that which could be delivered by a managed switch.

Radio problems are hard to troubleshoot, so let's start at the network level that's easiest for us to get our hands around.

Ok, I will definitely take a look at that. One thing I forgot to mention however is that since the radio's are dropping out, we are currently running Cat5 on the ground to the remote rack, and it is working without any problems or lag issues. Due to it being in a high traffic area of the plant, it is not feasible for this to be permanent. I spoke with a gentlemen with GE tech support on the iNET and with all the information I gave him, his best guess was that there was too much data traffic on the LAN from the unmanaged switches.

This brings up another question. I noticed that the iNET's are 10BaseT only... is it possible to have a unmanaged switch that does 100BaseT only and that is why it can't communicate properly?

The iNet’s rated throughput is only real on paper or if you run the “right” test. In application they will never deliver 1Mbps. A managed switch will reduce the amount of traffic that they have to deal with and may correct the problem all together. If not you need a higher speed radio keeping in mind that Produce/Consume wireless is a tough nut to crack. There are some 900MHz radios out there that will deliver higher (much higher) speeds at shorter distances but they won’t be FHSS so the robustness will be lower. Try the switch route (it’s good network practice anyway when dealing with wireless Ethernet), I’m guessing it will clear up your issues. Also follow Ken’s advice, again good network practice. If the switch doesn’t work out and you’re in a position to replace the iNet’s, look here (http://www.data-linc.com/fastlinc/fastlinc910e.htm). Replacing the equipment should be a last resort and again I think the switch will fix the issues (given that it already works, just poorly).