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Sixnet (News - Alert), specializing in industrial machine-to-machine (M2M) networking solutions, announced the introduction of the EL326 Layer 3 rack-mount switch.

In a release, Andrew Bronson, Sixnet’s director of connectivity solutions, said, “As a strong addition to our industrial Ethernet switching line, the EL326 gives customers and partners a powerful combination of Layer 3 enterprise features, industrial-grade reliability and Gigabit Ethernet performance.”

“With industrial customers becoming more reliant on network-based technology to run day-to-day business operations, network infrastructures will become larger and more complex, making enterprise features a necessity in industrial environments,” Bronson added.

This switch is a new addition to its EL series of advanced industrial Ethernet switches designed with Layer 3 functionality. The EL326 switch provides 24 ports of Gigabit Ethernet, optional dedicated stacking ports and 10-Gigabit Ethernet uplinks in order to synergize advanced enterprise-class features with optimum switching features as required in industrial environments.

Sixnet’s existing line of EL switches already includes the EL228 (28-port Ethernet) and EL212 DIN-rail (12-port Ethernet) switches. Now the three switches are expected to provide a flexible product family and leveraging them the company will serve a broad range of industrial networking requirements.

It can now offer customizable solutions that support different technologies, feature sets and form factors. These capabilities are useful in complex applications for industries such as power and energy, oil and gas, transportation, video and security, military, water/wastewater, maritime and others, said officials.

Doug Sheldon, CEO of IC Systems said, “With the new EL326’s Layer 3 functionality, Sixnet has truly expanded its advanced switch line to provide an intelligent communications platform that reliably supports Smart Grid operations. The switches’ small form-factor pluggable (SFP) ports are fully field-configurable and the scalability provided by the stacking options allows for great flexibility at a lower total cost of ownership.”

With the addition of more devices based on infrastructure and network-based technologies in industrial markets, there is a great demand from customers for advanced enterprise-class features, said officials.

Sixnet’s EL326 switches feature IPv4 and IPv6 management for hybrid IPv4/IPv6 networks and advanced port security (static and dynamic) that supports several authentication and encryption protocols, rate limiting and ACL features besides enabling powerful management for easy configuration, monitoring and troubleshooting.