User Documentation

User Manual Managed Switches
59
3.5 Communication redundancy
3.5.1 Introduction to Communication Redundancy
Setting up Communication Redundancy on your network helps protect critical links against failure,
protects against network loops, and keeps network downtime at a minimum.
Communication Redundancy allows you to set up redundant loops in the network to provide a
backup data transmission route in the event that a cable is inadvertently disconnected or damaged.
This is a particularly important feature for industrial applications, since it could take several minutes
to locate the disconnected or severed cable. For example, if the Weidmüller switch is used as a key
communications component of a production line, several minutes of downtime could cause a big loss
in production and revenue. The Weidmüller switch supports following different protocols for
communication redundancy:
 Turbo Ring (V1, original version)
 Turbo Ring V2 (new version with higher performance)
 Turbo Chain
 RSTP (Rapid Spanning Tree) and STP (Spanning Tree Protocols) according to IEEE
802.1W/802.1D-2004
When configuring a redundant ring, all switches on the same ring must be configured to use the
same redundancy protocol. You cannot mix the Turbo Ring (V1), Turbo Ring V2, and STP/RSTP
protocols on the same ring. The following table lists the key differences between the features of each
protocol. Use this information to evaluate the benefits of each, and then determine which features are
most suitable for your network.
Turbo Ring V1
Turbo Ring V2
Turbo Chain
STP
RSTP
Topology
Ring
Ring
Chain
Ring, Mesh
Ring, Mesh
Recovery Time
< 300 ms
< 20 ms
< 20 ms
Up to 30 sec.
Up to 5 sec
All of Weidmüller’s managed switches support following proprietary redundancy
protocols:
Turbo Ring (V1) refers to the original version of redundant ring protocol, which has a recovery
time of under 300 ms.
Turbo Ring V2 refers to the new generation Turbo Ring, which has a recovery time of under 20
ms. When using ring segments with Gigabit copper interfaces the recovery time is < 50 ms due to
a different ring health check method compared to Fast Ethernet interfaces.
Turbo Chain is a redundancy protocol with unlimited flexibility that allows you to construct any
type of redundant network topology. The recovery time is under 20 ms.
In this manual, we use the terminology Turbo Ring (V1) and Turbo Ring V2 to differentiate
between rings configured for one or the other of these protocols.
Note: By factory default no redundancy protocol is activated.
By factory default the redundancy protocol RSTP generally is selected, but all Switch ports
are disabled for beeing a RSTP port.