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Korenix Tibetway Application Story

Korenix Tibetway Application Story

23 Apr 2013

Korenix switches prevent broadcast storms on Qinghai-Tibet Railway By installing more than a hundred Korenix industrial Ethernet switches in 22 of its trackside railway stations and 96 field level s...

Korenix switches prevent broadcast storms on Qinghai-Tibet Railway

By installing more than a hundred Korenix industrial Ethernet switches in 22 of its trackside railway stations and 96 field level sites, the rail operator of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has now eliminated the risk of broadcast storms on its environmental monitoring and control system network.

The Qinghai-Tibet Railway is the highest plateau rail line construction in the world and also one of the most challenging in terms of the environmental conditions. Lying on frozen ground 3,000 metres above sea level, the railway is subjected to extreme climactic conditions: strong winds, heavy sandstorms and frequent thunderstorms. During the course of the day, the temperature can fluctuate by more than 30°C.

Monitoring the railway system’s live status, managing any unforeseen disasters instantly, and to ensure reliable operation, are the most important issues for the rail operating authority. This authority has designed and built a comprehensive environmental monitoring and control system on a power SCADA system, wireless base stations and equipment rooms along the trackside.

In 2009, Korenix’s industrial Ethernet switches were successfully chosen as the main network system in the 763km-long Seager line, the main stem of the Qinghai-Tibet railway. To put this into perspective, the equivalent distance in the UK would be a 481-mile train journey from London to Dundee. Korenix switches are able to operate reliably in extreme environments with rapid, wide temperature variations. The switch has an IP31 protected aluminium housing, which acts as a large heat sink, offering excellent cooling effects, as well as protecting the device from heavy sandstorms. The EN50121-4 protection levels also protect the switches from frequent thunderstorms.

Highly Reliable and Scaleable Network Architecture

From July 2009 to August 2010, more than 120 x JetNet 5428G industrial rack mount switches and JetNet 4510 Ethernet switches were installed in the 22 trackside railway stations and in the 96 field sites from Xining to Golmud.

In order to ensure improved scaleability, two levels of redundant rings were designed, at the field-level and station-level. Each field-level ring consists of several JetNet 4510 DIN rail switches that run Korenix MSR (Multiple Super Ring) for fast recovery, and is connected to a JetNet 5428G at the station level. The JetNet 5428Gs at stations in turn form the station-level ring, with the 3^rd party core switches in the central room by MSTP (Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol).

Outstanding Network Interoperability Minimises System Integration & Maintenance

To connect 100 Korenix switches to the 3^rd party core switches in the control room, network interoperability becomes a critical issue. In the customer’s conformance and interoperability tests, Korenix switches passed more than 350 items with a 97% pass ratio, which demonstrates outstanding conformance of RSTP and MSTP protocols. JetNet 4510 and JetNet 5428G switches successfully provided a stable, reliable solution for this major project.

Unique Solution Prevents Network Broadcast Storms

By providing its unique broadcast storm prevention/protection technology, Korenix has further solved a long-term headache for the customer. The railway authority had been suffering from occasional broadcast storms (one or two per month) in the legacy redundant ring networks. These broadcast storms overwhelmed all the Ethernet equipment and crashed the complete network. This type of problem cannot be fixed remotely and so personnel had to be physically sent to the problem station to fix the issue. Korenix switches can detect and break a malfunction loop topology and locate the root cause of a broadcast storm, helping the customer to maintain the environmental monitoring and control system network at all times, minimising downtime.

Visualisation Management Tool for Large Networks

In order to react quickly to any network failures, the customer also required a visualisation management system for monitoring and control over its large networks. Korenix’s JetView Pro system reports failures and the location of the failure to the customer, resulting in reduced troubleshooting and time spent locating the root cause of a failure on the network.

Why Korenix?

Korenix was selected as a partner on this project for several reasons:

The wide temperature range of its Ethernet switches and their reliable operation in extreme environments with rapid temperature variation.
Strong EMS Protection – EN50121-4 EMC rated for trackside applications.
IP31 Aluminium Housing – for improved protection from heavy sandstorms.
High RSTP/MSTP Conformance – ensuring stable interoperability with 3^rd party switches in the large network system.
Korenix’s patented MSR Redundant Ring technology - 5ms fast recovery time and 0ms seamless restoration.

For more information on Korenix and its products, please visit the website at www.korenix.co.uk or telephone MAC Solutions on 01527 529 774, or email [email protected] .

- ENDS – [727 words]

Note to Editors:

About Korenix

Korenix is a market leading brand in industrial networking and computing solutions with an extensive track record in providing innovative, market - oriented, value focused solutions to the industrial market. Over the years, Korenix successfully expands sales and service channels over Asia, Europe, America, Africa, and Middle East.

Korenix was acquired by Beijer Electronics in 2010, within the Industrial Data Communications Division. Beijer Electronics is a fast growing technology company with extensive experience of industrial automation and data communication, developing and marketing competitive products and solutions that focus on the user. Since its start-up in 1981, Beijer Electronics has evolved into a multinational group present in 16 countries and sales of 1,200 MSEK 2010. The company is listed on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm's Small Cap list under the ticker BELE.

Korenix UK is a partnership with MAC Solutions, a UK-based provider of hardware and software solutions that enable operators in the transportation, surveillance, infrastructure and automation industries to connect and manage distributed assets.

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