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The RedFox is a high performance industrial Ethernet switch with enhanced routing functionality, in a single robust unit. A single RedFox Ethernet Switch allows you to build cost effective, secure and reliable networks that would previously have required several different units. The feature-rich firmware and highly specified hardware provide flexibility and enhanced performance when building complex networks.
For mission critical applications our unique FRNT technology is the fastest protocol on the market for re-configuring large networks in the event of link or hardware failure. Gbit support on ring as well as drop ports along with bandwidth control techniques like VLANs and IGMP snooping allow RedFox to be optimised to perform with even the most bandwidth hungry applications such as video.
Advanced routing functions and firewall settings allow the RedFox switches to segregate networks and ensure that mission critical industrial networks are protected. The RedFox is also able to provide secure remote access to these networks across insecure connections by acting as a VPN endpoint.
Proven Robust Design
The RedFox was initially developed for a number of extreme applications in the defence, rail, aerospace and sub-sea markets. The resulting new product, RedFox Industrial, is thus based on a proven design that far exceeds normal industrial requirements. The RedFox technology has therefore been tested to the limit on mission critical applications for a number of years.
The ultra robust RedFox industrial Ethernet routing switch has a heavy-duty aluminium enclosure for maximum strength and heat dissipation with fixings to allow the unit to be mounted on a DIN rail or be connected directly onto a wall. This rugged casing also makes the unit resilient to extreme levels of electromagnetic interference.
The design of the electronics is critical to ensure long life in extreme operating environments. Only industrial grade components are used which gives the RedFox an MTBF of 600 000 hours. The designers were also careful to avoid fragile or sensitive components to ensure the PCBs could withstand significant shock and vibration testing. As well as all this the hardware is designed and tested to dissipate heat so effectively that the operating temperature specification of -40°C to +70°C is achieved with no internal fans.
The isolated power supply has an operating voltage range spanning from 16 VDC to 60 VDC and can be fed from two separate supplies of differing voltages making RedFox easy to power in the industrial environment as well as providing yet another level of resilience to the user.
A powerful industrially rated CPU and ECC internal memory have also been specified to ensure ultimate reliability. All these features ensure that RedFox can be used in just about any operating environment.
Explore the RedFox Hardware
Multicast Data in Switched Networks
Routing for Industrial Applicatons
As well as being a state of the art layer2 switch Redfox also doubles up to provide router functionality. Routing is becoming an essential function for infrastructure and factory automation networks. These networks are becoming more complicated with the boundary between LAN and WAN becoming less clear making security and network segmentation critical.
Providing static routing and firewall functions the Redfox can become the boundary between different networks providing simple segregation to ensure dataflow is controlled between networks and accidental as well as deliberate data incursions are prevented.
The Redfox is an ideal solution to isolate the corporate IT environment from an industrial automation network where there are sharply differing requirements. Not only can the Redfox form part of an FRNT redundant ring in the automation network it can also act as firewall to the corporate network. If, as is often the case the corporate network is connected to the Internet then the ability of RedFox to act as a VPN end point allows engineers the ability to remotely and securely access the automation network from anywhere in the world.
Redfox also supports Network Address Translation (NAT) and port forwarding, so could also be used as the boundary between public IP addresses on the Internet and hidden private IP addresses in a local secure network.
Network Security
Today with the advent of the Internet most networks are in some way connected together. Although this makes it possible to communicate freely across the world and to have access to any information you need at your fingertips it also creates great risk. When we use our networks to control important manufacturing processes, monitor water levels in reservoirs or run our power stations we can not afford to allow unauthorised users access to these networks. It is not just malicious incursions that must be prevented; statistically more networks are compromised by accidental means. To prevent this from happening RedFox offers several layers of security.
RedFox itself has an inbuilt firewall so can be used as a barrier between internal departments of a company or as a barrier to the Internet.Traffic crossing this threshold can be carefully controlled to protect the mission critical network.
If NAT (Network Address Translation) is used RedFox will hide the IP address of any device in the protected network whilst it communicates with device in an unsecured network meaning that the IP address of a particular device can never be found and attacked.
RedFox can act as a VPN server allowing IPsec tunnels to be set up between remote users and a local secure network. RedFox can encrypt the data packets using 256 bit AES - a level that to date has not been cracked.
Even with these levels of security it is critical that management of RedFox can not be compromised to allow other security features to be changed or the network to be maliciously reconfigured. To this end it is possible to disable the web configuration pages and SNMP if necessary. The CLI is secured using SSH (Secure Shell Protocol) so it is encrypted between the management station and switch.
Network Configuration - Made Easy
One of Westermo's clear mission statements is Industrial Data Communications 'Made Easy' which is why huge effort has been made to make the RedFox easy to use. The RedFox is a state of the art Layer2 switch which means that it actually needs no configuration out of the box to allow a simple network to be created.
The next level of configuration is our auto-discovery IP-Config tool that allows the IP address, subnet mask and gateway address to be set up. Once the IP address is set then the easy to use web interface allows you to set up many of the most common configurations in just a few minutes. An FRNT ring, VLANs or a basic firewall are only a few clicks away.
The RedFox is a powerful device and is capable of being finetuned for the most rigorous applications. This tuning is achieved using the RedFox Command Line Interface (CLI), which has been developed to be as intuitive as possible.
Building up a live configuration is often difficult in complex networking devices where a reboot is often necessary to test a new function. The RedFox has been developed to allow 'running changes' which means that fine tuning can be achieved quickly and with the option to revert back to the start point at any time. Once the optimum solution is proved this can be saved as the boot configuration so that when ever the unit is re-powered it will revert to those settings.
RedFox features USB port that can access a standard memory stick so a copy of the operating configuration can be backed up and reloaded into a replacement RedFox to allow quick and simple maintenance by unskilled staff.
RedFox is designed to form part of significant multi-vendor networks that will often need to be centrally managed. RedFox fully supports SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) hence providing yet another way for it to be configured and monitored.
Extensive Standards Compliance
Westermo have always designed equipment for industrial environments. More than 30 years of experience in this area has taught us how to design our products to function in the most severe operating conditions. The RedFox has gone through extensive testing both by Westermo and approved test houses. The units are designed and type tested based on:
- Electromagnetic Compatibility, EMC (2004/108/EC)
- Immunity for residential, commercial and light-industrial environments (EN 61000-6-1)
- Immunity for industrial environments (EN 61000-6-2)
- Emission standard for industrial environments (EN 61000-6-4)
- Information technology equipment - Immunity (EN 55024)
- Railway applications - Electromagnetic compatibility - Emission and immunity of the signalling and telecommunications apparatus (EN 50121-4)
- Radio frequency devices (FCC part 15 Class A)
- MTBF calculated according to MIL-HDBK- 217F
- Degree of protection according to IEC529 (IP)
- Isolation test, all interfaces tested according to EN60950
- Vibration test according to IEC 60068-2-6
- Shock test according to IEC 60068-2-27
- Temperature / Humidity / Altitude according to Westermo environmental specifications.
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