All around the world, utility
companies face growing demands on the services they
provide, and an increased need to manage their systems
more efficiently. This
is perhaps most evident in municipal wastewater
treatment, where legacy systems must be continuously
upgraded and future expansion must be adequately
planned for. Wastewater treatment plants have various
kinds of SCADA systems that typically involve multiple
operator workstations that interface with PLCs at
the wastewater treatment plant and to remote PLC
sites. Many wastewater infrastructures include multiple
plant sites spread out over a wide geographic area,
with each site including a mixture of in-building
networks that often do not link with other buildings
and processes on-site, or to other wastewater plant
sites and remote locations.
Adopting Ethernet networking gives
municipalities an efficient method for upgrading
legacy equipment and put in place a data collection
and
management infrastructure to support future expansion.
Municipalities are turning to Ethernet solutions
with a high-speed fiber backbone to support their
wastewater plant infrastructure. This allows utilities
to collect all data from numerous locations within
multiple plants and make it accessible from anywhere
on the network. The ability to connect all processes
and buildings on a single site, plus link multiple
plant sites together, provides numerous benefits.
EDS-726 Features 26-port Fiber Optics
EDS-726's multiple optical cable
support and modular switch design provides flexible
expansion along with the numerous ports that are
ideal for centralized control. Consequently, cost
savings can be achieved due to the efficiency of
the units and elimination of the need for media converters.
To ensure network reliability, EDS-726 supports
a redundant network architecture based on either
the industry standard 802.1W/D RTSP/STP protocol,
or Moxa's
leading-edge Turbo Ring technology. EDS-726
allows multiple rings to be formed and interconnected
through ring coupling, giving the ability to connect
and manage switches in remote locations, and provide
both local ring redundancy and redundant connections
between rings. Providing an alternate data
path
when one connection becomes disabled makes the
system more reliable and flexible, with
fast data recovery (< 300 ms) from anywhere
on the ring structure.
A Perfect Fit
for Multi-Plant Infrastructures
EDS-726's ability to support
a redundant fiber backbone and provide multiple easily
configured modularized ports that provide room for
expansion and support for long distance fiber networking,
makes it the perfect device with which to build a
wastewater infrastructure. With numerous PLCs monitoring
and controlling processes such as tank levels, water
flow, temperature, and PH in multiple plant sites,
EDS-726 can network all PLC data with large-scale
control center operations simultaneously. EDS-726
makes it easier to connect these fiber-based ring
topologies with a redundant, extremely reliable,
and easy to manage system.
New Capabilities Increase Efficiency
The long distance fiber support
facilitates hundreds of processes to be monitored
from anywhere on the network. For example, a central
control office in District A can monitor plant #2
in District B twenty kilometers away. As a result,
human resources can be allocated more efficiently
at certain locations due to better unmanned support
and monitoring capabilities. EDS-726's large number
of ports means reduced cabling and larger scale device
support at central control locations. The fiber structure
provides higher bandwidth to support future network
traffic for many years to come plus the ability to
use more bandwidth intensive devices, such as voice
and video for monitoring and communications.
EDS-726's intelligent
management features include IGMP Snooping and
GMRP for filtering multicast traffic for industrial
Ethernet protocols and SNMP V1/V2c/V3 for different
levels of network management security. EDS-726
is easily configured over the network by using
a web browser, Telnet console, Compact Flash
card, or a Windows utility provided by Moxa.
The Windows utility can also be used to store
and copy configuration parameters to multiple
EDS-726 units simultaneously. In addition, EDS-726
has import, export, and TFTP functions for convenient
back up and duplication of the configuration
file. Dual Redundant DC Power Inputs help guarantee
non-stop operation. The backup power input will
take over immediately when the primary DC power
input fails. Two Relay Outputs let you configure
two warning levels to notify field engineers
automatically when important events occur. Two
Digital Inputs can be used to integrate sensors
into an automatic alarm mechanism, sending warning
messages to an IP network by email, SNMP trap,
or OPC.
