| 摘要 |
<p>A dual-ring computer network architecture for industrial automation systems includes a dual-ring switch for interconnecting two networks, such as Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) networks. The dual-ring switch may provide separate control planes between the two networks but a common data plane between the networks. The system topology may include a main ring and a sub-ring, which creates separate fault regions for isolation. Using this configuration, the standard RSTP practical limit of 32 devices is no longer a limit, as the use of the dual-ring switch provides a mechanism to expand the total number of devices up to 256 while maintaining the network recovery time to within a target of 50 milliseconds. This allows for the use of dual rings using the RSTP protocol on a single switch. In another embodiment, two dual-ring switches are configured in the same sub-ring for redundancy.</p> |
