Project Overview

With the rapid expansion of new energy infrastructure—such as wind power, photovoltaic systems, and ocean current energy—communication systems have become essential for data transmission, security monitoring, and efficiency improvements across the entire management framework. However, these systems often operate in harsh environmental conditions, making it critical to rely on managed wide-temperature industrial Ethernet switches to ensure reliable network support.

The network equipment requirements for the Zha Ruo Mountain Island New Energy Project:

1. The island features a harsh environmental setting, with significant temperature fluctuations between day and night and severe windblown sand. It requires an operating temperature range of -45°C to 85°C, a storage temperature range of -45°C to 85°C, and a storage humidity level of 0% to 95%, with no condensation allowed.
2. The electromagnetic environment is harsh, requiring industrial switches to have strong resistance to electromagnetic interference and a long mean time between failures.
3. To ensure reliable communication, it is necessary to establish a redundant ring network with minimal self-healing time. In the event of a communication network failure, the system should seamlessly switch over to the redundant backup lines.
4. To ensure the security of remotely monitored data, the switch needs comprehensive network security settings.

Communication Network Design Plan

This system consists of five components: Wind Turbine Power Generation 1, Wind Turbine Power Generation 2, Ocean Current Energy, Switchgear Station, and the Laboratory Building.

The network communication between the laboratory building and the switchgear station utilizes gigabit fiber-optic redundancy technology, enabling rapid self-healing of the network in case of link failures.

In our networking solution, we primarily consider the following aspects:

1. The system design fully takes into account the unique characteristics of the monitoring system, adhering to principles that emphasize advanced technology, practicality, and proven reliability—resulting in a comprehensive, feature-rich network solution.
2. Capable of meeting the island's demanding physical environment requirements, including temperature, dust resistance, and electromagnetic compatibility.
3. The network architecture adopts a clear, multi-layered structure that simplifies network maintenance and management from the ground up—by optimizing the fundamental design of the network itself. This approach enables rapid identification and isolation of fault points, ensuring stable system operation.
4. The network configuration solution itself must inherently include robust fault-detection and rapid self-healing capabilities, enabling it to perform self-diagnosis and quickly resolve both device and link failures, while also providing real-time alerts.
5. When performing manual maintenance, capacity expansion, or troubleshooting on the network, efforts should be made to minimize disruption, ensuring that maintenance and scaling activities have no impact on system operations. Similarly, fault repairs should affect only the connected terminals of the relevant network devices, with minimal interference elsewhere.
6. Network devices are selected from industrial-grade equipment that offers high real-time performance and exceptional stability.
7. The networking solution offers compatibility, enabling seamless connectivity across network devices from different vendors, while delivering excellent value for money.
8. Considering the real-time requirements of the island site, a redundant network design concept has been adopted to prevent a single link failure from impacting the network.

This solution is based on a comprehensive evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and network reliability of industrial Ethernet switches, and the following recommendations are provided for network communication in the specified areas:

Wind Turbine and Experimental Building Network Communication System

Fan unit 1 is equipped with one IES 3009-2S-ST-6T industrial Ethernet switch located at the experimental building (providing 2 single-mode 100M fiber ports and 6 10/100Base-T adaptive interfaces), while Fan unit 2 has its own IES 3009-2S-ST-6T switch (offering 4 single-mode 100M fiber ports and 4 10/100Base-T adaptive interfaces). At each fan unit location, the box-type substation’s measurement and control as well as monitoring terminal is directly connected to the local IES 3009-2S-ST-6T switch. Additionally, RSTP network redundancy technology is employed between the switches at the two fan stations to establish a 100-Mbps fiber-optic network. Communication between Fan Unit 2 and the experimental building station also utilizes RSTP network redundancy, ensuring rapid self-healing in case of network link failures (self-healing time less than 30 ms), thereby effectively guaranteeing secure and reliable data transmission.

Ocean Current Energy and the Communication System of the Switchgear Station

"An industrial Ethernet switch IES 3009-2S-ST-6T—equipped with two 100M single-mode fiber ports and six 10/100Base-T adaptive interfaces—is installed at both the tidal energy site and the switchgear station. At the tidal energy site, the box-type substation’s monitoring & control system and inverters are directly connected to the local IES 3009-2S-ST-6T switch. Meanwhile, an RSTP network redundancy protocol is employed between the two stations’ switches, enabling the construction of a 100-Mbps fiber-optic network that ensures rapid self-healing in case of network link failures (with a recovery time of less than 30 ms), thereby effectively guaranteeing secure and reliable data transmission."

Local Communication System in the Laboratory Building

Considering the integration and unified management of system operations, different system services will be isolated using VLAN technology. At the core, Layer 3 routing and switching will be implemented, with one Layer 3 industrial-grade Ethernet switch—IAS6028-24T-4GXS—configured at the central monitoring center. This switch supports static routing, as well as dynamic routing protocols such as RIP, OSPF, and BGP, and multicast routing protocols like PIM-SM, PIM-DM, and DVMRP. It provides four 1000M single-mode fiber ports and 24 auto-negotiating 10/100Base-T interfaces, offering network connectivity for local monitoring terminals, central controllers, communication management units, servers, and other critical components. Overall, this setup ensures high-performance hardware-based routing capabilities for the entire monitoring system network.

Local Communication Section of the Switchgear Station

Configure a Layer 2 industrial-grade Ethernet switch, the IAS2028-24T-4GXS, which provides 4 single-mode 1000M optical ports and 24 10/100Base-T adaptive interfaces. This switch delivers network connectivity to local monitoring terminals, protection devices, energy metering units, and communication management systems, among others.

Communication Section Between the Switchgear Room and the Laboratory Building

Considering the large volume of data transmitted between the switchgear room and the laboratory building, the switches connecting these two stations utilize RSTP network redundancy technology to establish a gigabit fiber-optic redundant network. This ensures seamless communication between the two sites and enables rapid self-healing in case of network link failures (self-healing time less than 30 ms), effectively safeguarding the secure and reliable transmission of data.

Network Topology Diagram

Scheme Advantages

• By adopting an industrial-grade redundant network, we ensure both the real-time nature and the reliability of data transmission.
• Industrial-grade chips, industrial-grade power modules, and a low-power design ensure the high reliability of the industrial Ethernet switch.
• Industrial Ethernet switches have passed Level 4 industrial electromagnetic compatibility testing, ensuring excellent resistance to electromagnetic interference.
• The core switch uses a Layer 3 switching device, providing high-efficiency hardware routing capabilities for the entire monitoring system network.

List of Required Products

Equipment technical specifications and functional features:

• Excellent equipment features and flexible installation options, with wide-temperature, dustproof, and moisture-resistant designs.

Operating temperature: -40 to 85°C, storage temperature: -45 to 85°C, operating humidity: 0–95% (no condensation); metal enclosure with fanless cooling technology, offering protection ratings of IP40 and higher; customizable for rack, rail, or wall-mount installations.

• Operating reliably and stably in harsh electromagnetic environments;

Through industrial-grade electromagnetic compatibility testing, it effectively defends against industrial interference—including high-voltage AC electric fields, electrostatic fields, arcs, and thyristors—as well as natural disturbances like lightning strikes, various forms of electrostatic discharge, and geomagnetic storms.

• The equipment boasts an average mean time between failures exceeding 300,000 hours and provides spare parts year-round.
• Fast redundancy:

Supports the IEC62439 MRP international standard ring network redundancy protocol, with redundancy protection time less than 20ms, and supports tangent-coupled ring network configurations.

Supports RSTP/STP (IEEE 802.1w/d) redundancy protocols and features advanced loop prevention capabilities, effectively mitigating network storm issues caused by loops.

• Security advantages;

Supports VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) technology:

VLAN is an essential feature of secure switches. VLANs can span one or more switches, regardless of their physical locations, making devices appear as if they’re communicating within the same network. On a switch, VLANs enable isolation of broadcast domains, effectively dividing the network into independent, discrete areas—and even allowing you to control whether these areas can communicate with each other.

Traffic control function:

Traffic control in switches can prevent abnormal bandwidth overload caused by excessive traffic from broadcast packets, multicast packets, and unicast packets with incorrect destination addresses, while also enhancing the overall system performance and ensuring secure, stable network operations.

Supports port aggregation:

Multiple port aggregation not only increases the bandwidth of the link transmission but also provides redundancy protection for the transmission link, while simultaneously helping to distribute bandwidth evenly.

IEEE 802.1x Authentication Mechanism:

The IEEE 802 protocol suite's LAN access control protocol is a port-based access control mechanism. It leverages the advantages of IEEE 802 LANs to provide a robust method for authenticating and authorizing users connecting to the network, ensuring that only legitimate users gain access while blocking unauthorized attempts—thus safeguarding network security.

QoS mechanism:

Industrial Ethernet switches utilize the IEEE 802.p QoS CoS/TOS/DSCP prioritization scheme, ensuring real-time and reliable transmission of time-critical data.

Supports broadcast storm suppression and the IGMP-Snooping multicast protocol to enhance network transmission efficiency.

System logs:

The switch's logging feature can transmit system errors, configuration details, status changes, periodic status reports, and other information to the log server. Network administrators use this data to monitor the device's operational status, detect potential issues early, and promptly make necessary configuration adjustments or troubleshoot problems—ensuring the network operates securely and reliably.

Unified Network Management:

In addition to providing web-based access, it also supports multiple network management methods such as CLI, TELNET, and SNMP V1/V2.