Avoid this industrial Ethernet video mistake

-- Control Engineering, 12/3/2007

A common money waster for industrial Ethernet video applications, is for the end user to install switches with all gigabit ports, says Eddie Lee, product marketing manager – Americas, industrial networking, Moxa Technologies Inc.

Moxa offers this diagram showing how a video network might be structured.

The rationale is to accommodate the large data packet sizes and throughput concerns commonly associated with video streaming, he says. In practicality, most industrial grade video cameras are 10/100 Mbps, not 1,000Mbps (gigabit), so buying the additional bandwidth is “similar to buying high performance racing tires for use on your 1998 Buick Skylark.” A more cost-effective solution, Lee says, might be to use switches with a combination of a few gigabit ports for the backbone and fast Ethernet (100Mbps) ports for connectivity to the video cameras and other industrial devices.

Like traffic merging onto a freeway, you only need 2 lanes for the on ramp (100 Mbps camera feed), Lee says, but you'll want 4 or 5 lanes on the freeway (1,000 Mbps backbone) where multiple camera feeds converge.

Instead of hooking up analog cameras to a monitor for surveillance or DVR for recording, Lee says, video encoders convert the analog video feed to an Ethernet feed, allowing remote access and recording capabilities to any computer or hard drive connected on the network.

Moxa offers the industrial video encoder, VPort 351 series.

Moxa’s VPort 351 series video encoders are designed with industrial features such as redundant power inputs, EMI and surge protection, wide operating temperature range -40 degrees C to +75 degrees C. The video encoders also have a DIN-rail mount form factor, and hazardous location approvals such as UL Class 1 Div. 2. Moxa also offers the EDS-510A Industrial Managed Switch, which is commonly used in Industrial Video Networks.

See the white paper: Six Factors to Consider when Upgrading to an Industrial Grade IP Surveillance System.

Here's more information from Control Engineering about industrial Ethernet video.

—Mark T. Hoske, editor in chief
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