Types of Ethernet Switches: Industrial, Rugged and Military

The types of Ethernet switches fall into two groups: by management, from unmanaged through smart and managed to Layer 3, and by build, from office desktop switches to industrial DIN-rail, rack mount, M12, board-level and sealed military switches. Every type forwards Ethernet frames in the same way; what changes is how much control you have over the traffic and where the switch can survive.

Rugged Ethernet switches are the industrial end of that range: switches built to run in dust, water, extreme temperatures and vibration, on the factory floor for control and automation, outdoors in smart city and roadside cabinets, on board rolling stock and vehicles, and in military systems where demanding environmental specifications must be met. Our Ethernet switches cover each of these types.

This guide sets out every type in one table, explains the difference between industrial and commercial switches in figures, then works through form factors, connectors, management, redundancy, PoE and certifications. It ends with a decision table, a checklist, examples from our range and answers to the questions buyers ask most.

The table lists the types industrial buyers meet most often. A single switch usually belongs to more than one row: an M12 switch can be managed and PoE, and a board-level switch can be Layer 3. Read the rows as features to combine, not as exclusive categories.

At its simplest, every switch does the job our FAQ on what an Ethernet switch is describes, and none of them repeats traffic to every port the way an old hub did; see network hub vs switch. The rest of this guide takes each dimension in turn.

When people ask for the three types of network switch they usually mean the management types: unmanaged, smart and managed. Network designers sometimes mean something else, the three layers of a hierarchical network: access switches that connect end devices, distribution switches that aggregate them and apply policy, and core switches that carry traffic between distribution blocks. Industrial networks use the same idea at a smaller scale, with machine or cabinet switches at the access layer and a managed or Layer 3 backbone above them.

Aside from its design and specification to withstand harsh environments, a rugged Ethernet switch works in the same way as a commercial switch. It sits between connected devices so they can communicate across multiple ports. A switch receives frames on one port, reads the destination MAC address, looks it up in its address table and forwards the frame to the right port in a few microseconds. Industrial Ethernet switches send and receive in both directions at once on every port, at different bit rates where needed.

Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbit/s is still common on PLCs, drives and field devices, but high-resolution cameras and sensors have pushed industrial networks to Gigabit at the edge, with 2.5G and 10G uplinks where many devices share one link back to the core.

Fibre links use plug-in transceivers; our FAQs on SFP and single-mode vs multimode fibre explain the choices.

An industrial switch is defined by where it can work rather than by what it does. The switching is the same; the build, the power input and the testing are not. Figures below are typical; check each model’s datasheet.

The DIN-rail format is the industrial default; our FAQ on DIN rail explains the standard. Wide-temperature ratings matter more than they appear: a cabinet in direct sun can run 20 °C or more above the outside air.

The installation usually decides the form factor before any feature does. A control cabinet wants DIN rail. A control room or substation wants a 19-inch rack. A machine, vehicle or washdown area without a cabinet wants an IP67 M12 switch. An OEM building its own enclosure wants a board or module.

Board-level switching is covered in depth in our guide to embedded Ethernet switch modules, and the military end of the range in how a military Ethernet switch is put together from board-level switching, isolated power and a sealed enclosure.

RJ45 is the standard connector across most of our switches, and it suits installations without shock, vibration or water. Some makers add a locking screw to an RJ45, but there are better options where the environment is harder.

Locking M12 connectors resist shock and vibration and seal to IP67, or IP69K with suitable connectors, so an M12 switch can be mounted outdoors or next to machinery without a protective cabinet, which simplifies cabling and installation. Gigabit and 10G links use X-coded M12, Fast Ethernet uses D-coded; our FAQ on M12 coding explains the codes.

Where space is tight on board-level switches, latching connectors carry each port, and some designs group several ports on one connector for a breakout cable. For military and aerospace use, MIL-DTL-38999 connectors are used on sealed military switches: miniature, high-density circular connectors made for some of the harshest environments, defined by a US Department of Defense specification.

Our overview of what the main US MIL-STDs cover explains the military standards behind those connectors and enclosures.

Rugged switches are available as simple unmanaged switches or as managed switches with configuration, monitoring and security. The choice of an unmanaged switch or managed switch depends on what the application needs the network to do.

Rugged unmanaged Ethernet switches

Rugged unmanaged switches are typically used for simple line or star networks. They let connected devices talk to each other, but little else. An unmanaged switch has no IP address, so it is neither visible nor addressable on the network. These plug-and-play switches install quickly with no configuration and can be replaced without setting anything up. They are useful in smaller networks for adding ports where control, diagnostics and other management are handled by another device. Browse our unmanaged industrial switches.

Rugged managed Ethernet switches

A managed switch can be configured, monitored and diagnosed remotely through a web interface, SSH, Telnet or a serial command line. Each managed switch has its own IP address and is visible as a member of the network. That makes shared plant networks possible: VLANs separate traffic types, QoS prioritises control traffic, IGMP snooping contains camera multicast and SNMP feeds monitoring systems. Our FAQ on what a managed switch is gives the short version.

Redundant ring networks need a managed switch. If a cable or switch fails, the managed switches find and use another path. The time taken, called the recovery or switchover time, is a key measure of switch performance.

Industry example: managed vs unmanaged

A food and beverage plant might use an unmanaged switch for a subsystem that measures one ingredient on the process line, and a managed switch for the IP video surveillance system that sends high-definition images of the plant floor in real time, where multicast control, VLANs and monitoring matter.

Where do Layer 3 switches fit?

A Layer 3 switch is a managed switch that also routes between VLANs and subnets in hardware, so a segmented site does not need a separate router for local traffic. Light Layer 3 models add static routes; full Layer 3 models add dynamic routing such as OSPF. Our guide to Layer 2 vs Layer 3 switches explains when routing belongs in the switch.

Redundant cabling only helps if a protocol stops the extra links forming a loop and moves traffic onto them when a link fails. The protocol decides how long the network is interrupted.

Our FAQs on RSTP, ring topology and link aggregation explain each method. Where traffic needs guaranteed timing as well as redundancy, Time-Sensitive Networking adds scheduled delivery and zero-loss path replication, and switches with IEEE 1588 PTP carry precise time for cameras and sensors.

A PoE switch supplies DC power as well as data on its copper ports, so cameras, wireless access points, panel PCs and sensors need no separate supply. PoE switches come in unmanaged and managed builds; managed PoE switches can report power per port and power-cycle a device remotely. Our guide to Power over Ethernet covers the standards, classes and power budgets in depth.

The total budget of the switch, not its port count, decides how many high-power devices can run at once. Industrial PoE switches often need a higher input voltage for the PoE ports than for the switch itself, such as 45–57 V DC for PoE++. Browse our industrial PoE switches. PoE is available on our Antaira industrial switches; the Diamond Systems board-level and military switches do not supply PoE.

Certifications show that a switch has been tested for a specific industry. They are listed per model, and the same series can carry different approvals, so check the exact part number. We describe products as designed or tested to a standard only where the manufacturer states it.

Our guides to EN 50155 and FAQs on IEC 61850, MIL-STD-461 and Class I Division 2 explain these in more detail.

Match the switch to the installation and to what the network has to do. The table gives starting points; the checklist below covers the details.

Examples of each type from our catalogue. Figures are from each product’s page.

Antaira designs and builds its switches and we supply and specify them, pre-configuring IP addressing, VLANs and ring settings where you ask. Diamond Systems builds its switch boards, modules and rugged switches in full, and we supply them. Browse the rugged Ethernet switches range for sealed and military builds.