Industrial switches are also called industrial Ethernet switches, which are Ethernet switch equipment used in the field of industrial control, because of the adopted network standard, its openness, wide application, low price, and transparent and unified TCP/IP protocol, Ethernet has become the main communication standard in the industrial control field. Industrial switches have carrier-class performance characteristics and can withstand harsh working environments. Rich product series and flexible port configuration can meet the needs of various industrial fields. The product adopts wide temperature design, the protection level is not lower than IP30, and supports standard and private ring network redundancy protocols. 4G routers are widely used in industries such as finance, transportation, monitoring, water conservancy, environmental protection, electric power, postal services, meteorology, mobile Internet of Things, and telecom Internet of Things. So, what are the differences between industrial switches and industrial 4G routers? Let’s take a look together !

Industrial switches are different from industrial 4G routers in the following points:

(1) Different working levels

The original industrial switch was working at the data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI/RM open architecture, and the industrial 4G router was originally designed to work at the network layer of the OSI model. Since the industrial switch works on the second layer (data link layer) of OSI, its working principle is relatively simple. But industrial 4G routers work at the third layer (network layer) of OSI, which can get more protocol information, and industrial 4G routers can make more intelligent forwarding decisions.

(2) The data forwarding is based on different objects

Industrial switches use physical addresses or MAC addresses to determine the destination address for forwarding data. Industrial 4G routers use the ID numbers (ie IP addresses) of different networks to determine the address for data forwarding. The IP address is implemented in software and describes the network where the device is located. Sometimes these third-layer addresses are also called protocol addresses or network addresses. The MAC address is usually built in the hardware, assigned by the network card manufacturer, and has been solidified into the network card, and generally cannot be changed. The IP address is usually automatically assigned by the network administrator or system.

(3) The traditional industrial switch can only divide the conflict domain, not the broadcast domain; while the industrial 4G router can divide the broadcast domain.  The network segments connected by the industrial switch still belong to the same broadcast domain, and broadcast data packets will be transmitted on all network segments connected by the industrial switch, which may lead to communication support and security vulnerabilities in some cases. The network segments connected to the industrial 4G router will be assigned to different broadcast domains, and the broadcast data will not pass through the industrial 4G router.

Although the industrial switches above the third layer have VLAN functions, the broadcast domain can also be divided, but communication between the sub-broadcast domains cannot be communicated, and the communication between them still requires an industrial 4G router.

(4) The industrial 4G router provides the service of a firewall. It only forwards data packets with specific addresses, and does not transmit data packets that do not support routing protocols and the transmission of data packets on the target network, which can prevent broadcast storms.