Rockwell Automation has expanded its portfolio of industrial Ethernet switches with the new Allen-Bradley Stratix 5410 industrial distribution switch. With four 10-gigabit Ethernet ports, the Stratix 5410 switch provides a high-performance connection to the rest of a facility’s network architecture. The switch can be used as a Layer 2 access switch or a Layer 3 routing switch, which allows engineers to use it in various applications.

“Our expanded Stratix family of switches gives IT and engineering professionals the broad range of switches they need for high-availability network designs,” said Christo Buys, business manager for control systems, Rockwell Automation, Sub-Saharan Africa. “The Stratix 5410 distribution switch offers the performance and flexibility needed for designing future-ready network architectures.”

With a 19-inch rack-mount design, the Stratix 5410 switch gives end users a centralised point of network distribution and increased port density. It is ideal for heavy industry applications where resiliency is often required, and has a rugged exterior to help withstand harsh environmental conditions.

With embedded Cisco technology and Premier Integration into the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture system, the Stratix 5410 switch provides familiar solutions for information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) professionals. This helps ease network configuration, management and diagnostics. Using the Rockwell Software Studio 5000 design environment, engineers can leverage FactoryTalk View faceplates from Rockwell Automation and add-on profiles to simplify switch configuration and monitoring. In addition, the embedded Cisco technology helps optimise integration with the enterprise network.

Enhanced security features include application- or project-based port access, as well as configurable port security. Capabilities such as encrypted administrative traffic, 802.1x user authentication, access control lists (ACL) and multiple layers of password protection support plant-wide security as part of a defense-in-depth security approach.