EW500 Industrial Router: Safe Connection for Your Industrial Applications

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2017-02-20 17:37:00

Everyone is talking about connectivity in the Industry 4.0. But what about safety?

ESA Automation has launched its new Esaware EW500 industrial routers, which represent a further step in the company’s development of an increasingly connected and open productive context.

And not only that. ESA Automation focuses on another crucial aspect of the industry: safety. In fact, there is the need of ensuring a safe connection for your industrial applications.

How? Using an industrial last generation router.

Explore the accessibility of the ESA Automation Cloud.

The role of industrial routers in automation

An industrial router allows all the machines in your production facility to communicate with each other. It goes without saying then, that the industrial router is a crucial device.

Especially in the Industry 4.0, which is based on the principle of the Internet of Things, which consists on connectivity within a system of devices that can communicate with each other independently.

In fact, for a company, to ensure fast and safe access to the network is fundamental, because it’s the only way to guarantee constant data exchange.

For example, information about the health and the proper functioning of the machinery, for maintenance purposes, or consumption data.

Industrial router: a secure connection for your company applications

An industrial router connects all devices in a production plant and thus guarantees the proper performance of industrial applications.

But this wouldn’t be enough.

The role of industrial routers is also to ensure a safe connection for those requests. Which means making sure that all connected devices communicate with each other both efficiently and safely?

What do we mean by “safe connection”?

First, a stable one, that can ensure the continuative functioning and a constant data exchange.

But it also means a connection that is shielded and immune to intrusions and unwanted attacks.

Only then, the data transmitted by the industrial router can reach the right person, in the correct order and without external attacks.

For example, the industrial router must be able to block unauthorized access to the system resources.

EW500: the new Esaware industrial router

The principles of openness and connectivity of the Industry 4.0 are the basis of all the new ESA Automation solutions. Including the Esaware EW500 industrial routers line.

This industrial router family allows you to open access to any device on the maintenance platform everywhere.

In this way, you have the possibility to connect all your systems through an encrypted VPN – and therefore safer – connection. Let’s analyze better all the technical characteristics that these industrial routers have to offer.

The EW500 industrial routers provide up to four LAN ports for the communication with field devices. In this way, they also allow optimizing installation costs.

Among the solutions offered by the Esaware line for industrial automation, you can also find versions that provide the possibility to communicate via mobile networks. An option that allows you to install a EW500 industrial router even when a wired connection is not available.

Finally, as already explained above, the industrial router must also ensure a safe connection for your industrial applications.

That’s why Esaware industrial routers feature a firewall, which lets you apply a filter at the level of the ports or of the communication packages, to make your connection even safer.

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