The Lion's Den: A Podcast From Red Lion Controls: Recent Episodes
Red Lion Controls
Technology is changing monitoring and control within industrial production. Tune in to hear from the experts at Red Lion Controls on how you can harness technology to empower your business.
Out in the field, it can be hard to connect to remote devices, especially because of the complications that go into it. But it doesn’t have to be a problem if you have the right software that is easy to use and quick to solve the problem at hand. And it’s a solution that Red Lion has at the ready.
Host of The Lion’s Den, Tyler Kern, sat down with Red Lion’s Technical Business Development Manager, Barry Turner, to talk about their RLDialUp software for connecting to your remote devices without any unwarranted hassle or issues.
Turner acknowledged that the major problem with getting remote access software to work properly involves configuration changes. “One of the biggest problems is getting access and making configuration changes via serial or USB connection,” said Turner. Explaining further, he said “If it’s in the field, and you need to get access to it serially, but you need to get access to it over the Internet, well, you have to convert the serial communication to IP…to traverse the Internet.” Needless to say, connecting to a remote system or device out in the field can be a complicated endeavor.
While Turner says that “serial communication doesn’t typically do that without some special technology,” the good news is that Red Lion does have that technology. “You’d be able to use our RLDialUp VPN client software, and then click a button to connect you to the USB or the serial interface of the remote site.” Best of all, Turner is open to answering questions by email via barry.turner@redlion.net. And of course, he also recommends visiting RedLion.net for more info.
Since the advent of the computer, many technological developments have later followed in helping improve how information and data is shared. Of course, in all its benefits, technology is not foolproof, and plenty issues have arisen as a result. Multicast, which is a communication method via ethernet, is a type of connection where data from one destination can be sent to multiple destinations at the same time, per After Academy. In contrast, it offers a different multitasking communicative component than that of other computer network castings.
But with pros, there are also cons, which is why developers have worked to create and implement tools that can circumvent potential issues. With this in mind, what are the best practices that help mitigate a possible malfunction of data transferring via multicast?
Host of “The Lion’s Den,” Tyler Kern, sat down with Barry Turner, the technical business development manager at Red Lion, about implementing multicast and the ways to prevent technical issues.
Kern and Turner also talked about …
- The differences between multicast versus unicast and broadcast
- How the IGMP snooping method for network switches helps control traffic
- The benefits of having a good backup system for possible multicast issues
“The multicast, as long as it’s configured properly when it switches, you're good to go — you're in good shape. But if you misconfigure it, it will cause problems, or can cause problems on your network and a lot times as the network grows and gets bigger and bigger, it becomes more apparent than the problem is there so you may be misconfigured, but your network traffic may be low enough it doesn’t actually manifest in downtime … So, a better approach is to have the right networking equipment — maybe something that actually supports automatic IGMP snoop, so you don't have to worry about that at all,” said Turner.
Barry Turner has worked at Red Lion for 10 years and was previously a sales engineering manager with the company. Prior to that, he worked as a Network Engineer at N-Tron.
Barry Turner and Megha Agrawal discuss why managed ethernet switches are important.
- Managed ethernet switches optimize network performance.
- Managed ethernet switch features help support creating security layers.
- Managed switches ensure customers’ industrial automation and networking needs are met.
Jeff Thornton discusses harvesting automation & process data.
- Having accurate data can transform your business.
- The PM50 offers contactless monitoring.
- The better data you have, the better decisions you make.
Jeff Thornton discusses the benefits of working with an OEM
- The PM50 addresses original equipment manufacturer (OEM) needs.
- The PM50 cuts back on significant expenses while providing excellent capabilities.
- The PM50 comes with an app, equipping workers with high-tech support.
Jeff Thornton discusses the benefits of working with an OEM
- The PM50 addresses original equipment manufacturer (OEM) needs.
- The PM50 cuts back on significant expenses while providing excellent capabilities.
- The PM50 comes with an app, equipping workers with high-tech support.
Barry Turner discusses the possibilities of improved process control and production throughput in factory automation with ultra-reliable, low latency capabilities of 5G technology.
- Newer application requirements necessitate greater bandwidth.
- Businesses want access to pull remote site data and analyze it elsewhere.
- 5G will bring a conclusion to the convergence of IT and OT.
Barry Turner discusses creating the proper alignment between OT and IT
- Defense-in-depth strategies will help align IT and OT while creating a robust application.
- Networks need the ability to log an alert whenever unusual activity is detected.
- Controls engineers should consider replacing unmanaged network switches with fully managed ones.