How to build a redundant fiber optic ring

[carroll01]

Hello everyone. I would like to connect 10 buildings with a redundant fiber optic ring and have a control room connect to te closet building in the ring to  receive data from our process control systems which are in the buildings in the ring. They are DCS systems that feed information to the bacbone over FTE. Can someone point me to a document that shows what I need to do and a sample architecture. Can I use Catalyst 2960S switches or do I need 3750s in all my buildings. Thanks in advance for any help.            

[Marwan ALshawi]

3750 could be a good option with fiber ports

The Cisco Catalyst 3750-X and 3560-X Series have a nonblocking switching architecture capable of forwarding traffic for all 48 1 Gigabit ports plus 2 10 Gigabit ports at line rate. See the datasheet for the MPPS information for each model.

HTH

[carroll01]

Thank you Marwan. Perhaps you help me with another question. I have VOIP, ethernet from monitoring devices, FTE, SafeNet  ethernet from cameras and a business network. All of these need to be on their own network. Should I run seperate fiber in the switches for each network in the ring or use VLANS in the switchs for each. This is going to be a gas processing facility. I appreciate your help!

[donlindsay70]

You will need some form of separation from your process control domain from the business network. If you have enough fibre pairs, then VRFs can be used to bind to the interfaces, or you can bind to the Vlans to the appropriate VRF. The important part is to ensure that the process control network is not routable from the business network.

With the FTE, check with the vendor that if it's handled within the DCS system and you only need to provide separate Vlans for L2 communication. You will also need to consider some form of authenticated gateway to handle third party external access to support your process control network.

Don

Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

[Marwan ALshawi · Accepted solution]

Hi Carroll,

as Don suggested L2 VLANs and VRFs in L3 point is the best option to go with for multiple isolated logical networks over one physical network

have a look at the below design guide link for path isolation using vlans and VRF which is very helpful

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/solutions/Enterprise/Network_Virtualization/PathIsol.html

hope this help

make sure to rate the helpful posts

[carroll01]

Thank you everryone. I will take your advice to move forward!

Cheers,

Carroll.