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The MeshNODE is an amazing little unit. It has one physical ethernet port for connecting any ethernet device and is compact and extremely easy to mount. Got a dead spot out in the plant? Simply mount the MeshNODE with line of site to another MeshNODE and close to the dead zone and it isn't dead any more. The MeshNODE allows you to port out VLANs, giving secure access to the right devices or people, even when they don't have wireless. Got a critical piece of equipment and want redundancy? No problem, locate two MeshNODEs within 4 feet of each other, and you have instant redundancy with no crosstalk. |
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PlantMESH implementation costs as well as the total cost of ownership are dramatically lower than industrial wired alternatives. In the typical manufacturing plant environment, wired networks cost between $500 and $2,500 per connected device to install. In addition, they have long installation times; don’t offer complete plant coverage; are difficult to expand; hard to troubleshoot; have single points of failure; and have no way to support mobile vehicles like forklifts.
By comparison, PlantMESH installations average $50 to $350 per connected Ethernet device in a whole plant scenario.
Mesh networks are based on architectures that have been developed and proven over the last four decades, but until the release of PlantMESH they haven't been able to deliver the performance and scalability needed to augment and even replace wired industrial Ethernet networks. Standard Point-to-Point industrial wireless network implementations still require Ethernet cabling, and because they are one-to-one connections, any node problem can take the entire network down.
By contrast, the PlantMESH design provides intelligent and automatic optimization that senses failures and automatically reassigns network routes, thus making the network self-healing and highly robust.