Industrial HiVision - Auto-Topology Discovery

Everybody will agree that having accurate topology maps showing how network devices are connected, and the exact location of those devices, is of paramount importance for responsible network management.

Unfortunately, until recently, this has been easier said than done.

Creating network maps requires a great deal of effort. And even in the most diciplined of network environments, things can get changed inadvertantly over time.

Put it another way. Are you 100% certain that your network documentation is correct? If you remove that cable, are you disconnecting the correct device?

Fortunately the standards bodies have addressed this issue, and come up with a solution. Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) is an IEEE standard (802.1AB) which allows switches to gather information about their neighbours and how they are connected together. This information is then available to management software.

Industrial HiVision not only takes advantage of this IEEE standard, but extends it further by reading the Learned Address Tables of the switches to determine where end devices, and even wireless devices, are connected to the network.

The result is Auto-Topology Discovery. Industrial HiVision will draw your network for you, including redundant connections, with 100% accuracy. All you need to do is rearrange the icons to reflect the actual physical location of the devices.

User benefits:

• Minimised configuration effort.
  
• Rapid deployment.
  
• Maps are guaranteed to be correct.
  
• Easy way to check network documentation.
  
• Always up to date.

Demonstration