Router has dual VPN and firewall capabilities

The Stratix 5900 services router expands a portfolio of jointly developed industrial products from Rockwell Automation and Cisco that are helping manufacturers build a unified, secure environment from the enterprise to end devices in an industrial automation control system. With VPN and firewall capabilities, the router restricts and regulates communication to help ensure a security perimeter is maintained and information exchange crossing the security boundary is not tampered with or interrupted. VPNs can also create a secure tunnel for server-machine communications to help protect cell/area zones from other machines in the facility. Firewall capabilities can monitor and block an input or an output that does not meet the firewall's configured policy. When combined, VPN and firewalling create a more robust, more secure network.

Doug Wylie, CISSP, director, Product Security Risk Management, Rockwell Automation, says: "Rockwell Automation is helping industrial control system customers address both IT and industrial automation security challenges by collaborating with Cisco and other industry leaders to drive network infrastructure convergence and help integrate technical and business systems. Through their collaboration, manufacturers have products - like the Stratix 5900 services router - along with the educational resources and global services they need to bridge the technical and cultural gaps between plant-floor equipment and IT systems."

This router also enables manufacturing locations to connect to and communicate with remote locations and substations. For example, a remote machine - whether 100 feet or 1000 miles away - can connect to a plant-based machine using the services router. This is a common application for the oil and gas and water wastewater industries where equipment dispersed across vast distances needs to communicate with each other to operate a common process.

The ruggedised Stratix 5900 services router runs on Cisco IOS, and includes a wide area network (WAN) port and four Fast Ethernet-ports. The hardware includes embedded features such as Network Address Translation (NAT), NBAR protocol filtering, Access Control Lists (ACL) and Quality of Service (QoS) for prioritisation. It has extended shock and vibration capability, comes with a DIN rail mount, and operates in a temperature range of minus 25degC to 60degC, making it suitable for industrial applications.

Currently available from Rockwell Automation, the Stratix 5900 services router complements the full portfolio of Stratix switches and the Allen-Bradley ControlLogix EtherNet/IP secure communication module (1756-EN2TSC). Please go to www.rockwellautomation.co.uk for further details.