Did you know that a ring topology is not the only redundancy solution?

Ring topologies are great for achieving resilient and reliable networks. In case of a power failure at one site, traffic can still reach all other sites minimizing the total network down time. However, for ring topologies to be secure and reliable at all times, cables should be installed separated from each other and there must always be a return path, closing the ring from the furthest site. This can sometimes be expensive and difficult to achieve.

Westermo can offer alternatives at these situations that are both cost-effective and reliable. By reusing old copper cables, money can be saved when modernizing old serial applications with new SHDSL based Ethernet solutions. A challenge when reusing old cables is that you need to work with what you have installed, and sometimes it is just not possible to configure a ring network topology. With the new DDW-142-12VDC-BP, Westermo has introduced a bypass relay that makes it possible to build resilient network solutions even in multidrop topologies.

If a site or device in the network becomes unavailable, that device will be bypassed so the rest of the network can still be reachable. The data will pass right through the unavailable device to next working device. This is great for many applications within rail trackside, traffic control and mining industries, as these are environments where building ring topologies are difficult or even physically impossible.