What Is Industrial Router and Bridge？what Are the Differences Between Them？

PublishTime： 2023-11-01 Article Source：usr News

Industrial Router is a router device designed and applied specifically for industrial environments. Industrial routers typically have more powerful performance and higher reliability than the average router in a home or office environment to adapt to complex, harsh, and demanding industrial scenarios.

The Industrial Router has the following features and functions:

1. Industrial Hardware: Industrial Router features industrial-grade components and materials that are more resistant to shock, interference, and temperature changes. They can operate stably under extreme conditions of temperature, humidity, vibration, and dust.

2. Large-scale network connection: Industrial routers usually have multiple Ethernet ports and serial ports and can connect and manage a large number of industrial devices and sensors. They support a variety of mainstream communication protocols and industry standards, such as Ethernet, Modbus, CAN, etc.

3. High-speed data transmission: Industrial Routers can provide high-speed data transmission and bandwidth management capabilities to meet the needs of real-time data transmission and large-scale data processing. They support features such as load balancing, flow control, and data compression to improve network performance and efficiency.

4. Security and reliability guarantee: Industrial Router attaches great importance to network security and data protection, and has firewall, VPN, ACL, and other security mechanisms to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data. They also support redundant and fault-tolerant functions such as dual hot standby, link backup, and automatic reconnection, and provide highly reliable network connection.

5. Remote management and monitoring: The Industrial Router supports remote management and monitoring and can be configured and monitored via a Web interface, a command line interface, or remote management software. They provide real-time network status and equipment status feedback, which is convenient for operation and maintenance personnel to carry out remote maintenance and troubleshooting.

Industrial Router is widely used in industrial automation, intelligent manufacturing, the Internet of Things, and other fields to build a reliable and secure industrial communication network to achieve data interaction and remote management between devices. They play an important role in improving productivity, reducing maintenance costs, and optimizing operational management.

What is a Bridge?

A bridge is a network device used to connect and forward data. It works at the data link layer (Layer 2), forwarding and bridging data based on MAC addresses.

The main function of a bridge is to forward data frames from one network to another to enable connectivity and communication between different networks. It learns and maintains a MAC address table (also known as a forwarding table or bridge table) to record the MAC addresses of the devices connected to each port and the corresponding network segments. When a frame is received, the bridge looks up the MAC address table, finds the port with the destination MAC address, and forwards the frame to the destination port.

Here are some of the features and applications of bridges:

1. Broadcast domain isolation: Bridges have the ability to divide a network into multiple broadcast domains. A broadcast domain is a range over which all devices in a network can receive the same broadcast message. Through the work of the network bridge, the equipment in each broadcast domain can only receive the broadcast message in the broadcast domain, thereby reducing the transmission range of the broadcast message and improving the reliability and performance of the network.

2. Network expansion and segmentation: When a network is too large or needs to be further divided, it can be divided into multiple subnets through bridges. Bridges can connect each subnet to a different bridge port, enabling segmentation management and flexible network topologies. This reduces the size of the broadcast and collision domains and improves the efficiency and security of the network.

3. Connecting different types of networks: Bridges enable connections between different types of networks, such as Ethernet and wireless local area networks (WLANs). It can convert and bridge data frames from different networks so that they can communicate with each other.

4. Data filtering and security control: The bridge can filter and limit data frames by configuring filtering rules to control and protect network traffic. It can filter and forward control based on MAC address, IP address, protocol, etc. To prevent illegal or unwanted data streams from entering the network.

Generally speaking, a bridge is a network device used to connect and forward data. It realizes the forwarding and bridging of data between different networks by learning and forwarding tables. It plays an important role in broadcast domain isolation, network extension, different network connections, and data filtering.

Differences between Industrial Router and Bridge

Industrial Routers and network bridges are two kinds of network devices in common use. There are some differences in their functions and applications. The following are the main differences between an Industrial Router and a bridge:

Working level: Industrial Router works in the network layer (Layer 3) and performs data forwarding and routing according to the IP address. Bridges, on the other hand, operate at the data link layer (Layer 2) and forward data based on MAC addresses.

Network range: Industrial routers can connect the interconnection between different networks, such as the connection between local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN). Bridges are usually used to connect different subnets in the same network and extend the coverage of the network.

Routing function: Industrial Router can realize routing selection and deliver packets from the source address to the destination address according to the information in the routing table. It can support multiple routing protocols, such as static routing and dynamic routing. However, the bridge performs forwarding according to the learned MAC address table and does not involve routing.

Network isolation: Industrial Routers can realize isolation and security control between different networks, and map and manage IP addresses by means of network address translation (NAT). Bridges transmit and forward data in the same network, and do not have the function of network isolation.

Performance and Flexibility: Industrial Routers typically have more processing power and higher throughput. It can support more complex network topologies and more network protocols. The bridge is relatively simple, with low processing capacity and throughput, and is suitable for a simple network environment.

Industrial routers and bridges differ in network hierarchy, functional scope, operating principles, isolation security, and performance flexibility. It is very important to select the appropriate network equipment according to the actual needs and the requirements of network design.

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