Intelligently Grow Your Organization’s Critical Network with Valin

As the amount of critical data surrounding industrial processes has increased, industrial device manufacturers have found that the traditional methods of exchanging and gathering data using serial protocols and hardwired IO are not able to keep pace with the growing bandwidth requirements. These manufacturers have gradually turned to proven technologies already commonplace in the commercial space, such as Ethernet, and have used them in industrial applications like motion control or distributed control systems. This increasing emphasis on higher-bandwidth technology has resulted in industrial communications equipment, like Ethernet switches and wireless access points, with the ability to withstand harsh process environments where vibration, unregulated temperatures, and humidity would make it impossible for their commercial cousins to reliably function.

 

While this technology is bringing numerous benefits to organizations who have been early adopters, it also requires process engineers, manufacturing managers, instrumentation techs, and other employees not traditionally involved in IT to understand and implement networking technology. As the number of nodes on an industrial network grows, the communications backbone becomes more complex, and some of our customers have expressed that they don't feel fully equipped to address this complexity. Valin recognized that a workshop which addresses the challenges and potential solutions of a growing network would be valuable for anyone in the position of starting an industrial network, or experiencing growing pains on an industrial network that may not have anticipated the need for more advanced growth and new technologies.

 

The Valin Industrial Networking workshop is meant to take a student with limited to no working knowledge of Ethernet, Internet Protocol and IEEE Wireless, and give them a platform to make confident decisions about networking in their organization. A student with intermediate knowledge will also benefit from this workshop, improving their grasp of the basics, filling in any gaps in understanding, and introducing some of the advanced topics they may not have encountered that will help them intelligently grow their industrial network. We will touch on: