Adaptive industrial network

摘要

An environment, such as an industrial environment, may include a control network with multiple network devices. A network device in the control network may have groups of communication ports servicing upstream and/or downstream network traffic. The group of communication ports may have, for example, two communication ports. Transmission parameters of the communication ports may be dynamically configured based on a first network port configuration and a second network port configuration for the first and second communication ports, respectively. The first network port configuration may have different transmission parameters than the second network port configuration. The first network port may forward data packets over the control network according to the first network port configuration, while the second network port may forward data packets to the next hop device utilizing the second network port configuration.

主权项

1. A network device in an industrial network, the network device comprising:
circuitry configured as a first network port; circuitry configured as a second network port; circuitry configured as a port manager to dynamically select a first network port configuration for the first network port and a second network port configuration for the second network port based on an identifier included in received data packets, wherein the first network port configuration allocates the first network port for operation in a first tier of a network, and the second port configuration allocates the second network port for operation in a second tier of the network, the first network port configuration being common to a plurality of network ports allocated to the first tier, and the second network port configuration being common to a plurality of network ports allocated to the second tier, and the first network port configuration having different transmission parameters than the second network port configuration; the first network port configured to forward, over the network, first data packets for receipt by a first port of a next hop device allocated to the first network tier and utilizing the first network port configuration in response to the identifier included in the first data packets being representative of the first tier; and the second network port configured to forward, over the network, second data packets for receipt by a second port of the next hop device allocated to the second network tier and utilizing the second network port configuration in response to the identifier included in the second data packets being representative of the second tier.