Turbo Chain

• Turbo Chain™: A New Recovery System that Goes Beyond Current Redundant Ethernet Rings

  Moxa's Turbo Chain™ is an advanced redundancy technology that solves the slow recovery time of STP/RSTP, and the inflexible topology or restricted rings of proprietary ring redundancy.

  Use Turbo Chain™ with any Moxa managed Ethernet switch to build a solid foundation for creating mission-critical and multiple redundant network connections with fast fault recovery time, flexible topology, unlimited network expansion, and cost-effective configuration—for today and tomorrow.

  Using the innovative "chain" concept, network administrators can create any type of redundant topology among any network segment. Configuring Turbo Chain™ is easy; simply connect several Ethernet switches together to form a daisy-chain, where a Head-Switch and a Tail-Switch (the edge switches at the two sides of the chain) are configured first, then the remaining switches are configured as member switches. Next, link the two ends of the chain to an Ethernet network. That's it, setup is finished!

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  Turbo Chain™ Networking

  Turbo Chain™ provides the prompt redundancy that is required for industrial applications. Once a chain-segment fails, the blocked path (link between the tail-switch and the outside network) will activate instantaneously with a recovery time of under 20 milliseconds. This fast recovery will ensure that the industrial Ethernet network remains available, with almost zero downtime.

Benefits of Turbo Chain™

• Turbo Chain™ presents significant benefits and advantages for industrial networks, which often require complex redundant topologies, and it enables the highest reliability and availability for industrial Ethernet network applications. Whenever a network adopts a multiple ring architecture, Turbo Chain™ is the best solution for the following reasons: flexible and scalable construction, unrestricted expansion, fast fault recovery, and cost-effective deployment.

  Build Highly Flexible and Scalable Redundant Topologies
  Turbo Chain™ features extreme versatility for accommodating any type of complex network topology. With the chain methodology, network engineers now have the freedom to create as many redundant connections as they need by simply linking a new Turbo Chain™ to any segment of the Ethernet Network.

  Unrestricted Expansion to Form Scalable Redundant Networks
  Turbo Chain™ allows unlimited and easy network expansions. Network engineers do not need to reconfigure the existing network, but rather, use Turbo Chain™ to scale up the redundant networks directly. In addition, Turbo Chain™ can be connected to a network using other redundant technologies, such as STP, RSTP, and Moxa's Turbo Ring™.

  Reliable and Immediate Fault Recovery Mechanism
  Turbo Chain™ offers industrial-grade redundancy that is capable of tolerating network-segment failures. If any given network link fails, Turbo Chain™ will activate the blocked path and continue forwarding data—all with a super fast recovery time of less than 20 milliseconds.

  Cost-effective Deployment
  Turbo Chain™ reduces deployment time, effort, and installation costs since the connection of different redundant networks can be achieved without ring coupling cables. When compared with ring-coupling technology, Turbo Chain™ presents significant cost reductions, since Ethernet ports and kilometers of fiber-cabling used for ring coupling paths are eliminated.

  This type of deployment is ideal for applications that require network redundancy and have budget considerations and cabling difficulties associated with coupling. Figures 5, 6, and 7 illustrate Turbo Chain's™ cost-effectiveness.

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  Turbo Chain™ cuts 10 km of coupling cables for this oil pipeline system (actual case study)

  Turbo Chain™ allows for unlimited redundant network expansions without reconfiguration, and since Turbo Chain™ is compatible with standard IEEE 802.1w/D RSTP, STP, and Turbo Ring protocols, Turbo Chain™ can be integrated into other Ethernet networks.

• Actual Case Studies

  Wind Power System

  Wind farms consist of windmills scattered over a wide area, and redundant Ethernet network connections are an ideal solution to connect devices at each windmill to the same network. However, typical ring technologies are awkward, costly, and make it inconvenient when linking the nodes together. Turbo Chain™ is the best solution, because it satisfies all the requirements of this application: a reliable self-healing network (recovery time < 20 ms), cost-saving deployment, and high scalability and expandability so that more windmills can be conveniently added in the future.

  Railway System

  Railway systems use a centralized redundant monitoring system to connect different sub-communication stations for real-time operation to ensure safe transportation. Moxa's Turbo Chain™ allows the railway system to quickly and easily scale up whenever the network needs to be expanded. Instead of creating another sub-ring for the new network, or rerouting/reconfiguring the existing network, administrators can simply chain-up the new nodes, and hook up the chain to the current network. Regardless of whether or not the existing network is running STP, RSTP, or Turbo Ring protocols, Turbo Chain™ can interoperate reliably with any of them.

  

  A Wind Power System Uses Moxa's Turbo Chain™ to Build a Network That Is Ready for Tomorrow

• Summary

  Industrial applications require reliable, redundant network systems to ensure non-stop network operations. Since the complexity of industrial field wiring continues to increase, deploying redundant connections with flexibility and scalability has become imperative.

  Moxa's Turbo Chain™ redundant technology, which is supported by all of Moxa's industrial managed Ethernet switches, is the solution with the highest availability, and it allows network administrators to easily build multiple redundant connections that are highly adaptable. The benefits of Turbo Chain™ redundant technology include:

  Flexible and expandable network construction, with zero network reconfiguration effort.

  Interoperability with various redundant networks, such as STP, RSTP, and Moxa's Turbo Ring™ networks.

  Rapid fault recovery (recovery time < 20 ms) for reliable system operations.

  Cost-effective deployment compared with ring coupling.

  

  A Railway System Uses Moxa's Turbo Chain™ to Expand an Existing Network