New small, lightweight and low-power rugged managed Ethernet switch

North Atlantic Industries (NAI) has introduced a small, rugged, managed Ethernet Switch, NIU2A-ES2. The device is a Layer 3, fully managed switch providing sixteen 10/100/1000Base-T (GbE) Ethernet ports and four optional 10Gbe 850nm multimode fibre-optic ports. Also, there is one GbE and one RS-232 port for maintenance/configuration interface. The device supports OSI model data link Layer 2 and network Layer 3, QoS and security features. The switch also integrates industry-standard Broadcom switch technology and the power of an NXP QorIQ processor hosting unparalleled quality of service, L3 management and security services. The rugged switch provides scalable Ethernet links allowing networks including on-board vehicle, marine and aircraft platforms to field and expand digital network architectures for network-centric operations. With a very small footprint of 7” x 3” x 2.5” (including connectors), low-power requirements and a weight of approximately 2.75lbs., the device is ideally suited for rugged Mil-Aero and other SWaP-optimised systems in air, land and sea applications. It is intended to meet the demands of MIL-STD-810G, MIL-STD-461F and MIL-STD-704A. Conduction-cooled and convection-cooled models are offered to suit most installation conditions. "Customers asked for a small, lightweight and low-power Layer 3 switch with options for fibre-optic connections," stated Lino Massafra, vice president of Sales and Marketing for North Atlantic Industries. "The NIU2A-ES2 is the Ethernet switch solution the rugged embedded market is missing."