CCTV: A Look at a Quarter of a Century‘s Growth at Moxa

Over the time it takes for a little acorn to mature into a solid tree standing proud, Moxa has developed from a small technology integrator into a million ­dollar company that services 60 countries worldwide. With a portfolio of meanwhile more than 400 different products that focus on on industrial networking & control, Moxa has become a major player in the industrial communication industry.

The company‘s developments mirror the market requirements and incorporate innovation. Since 2002, Moxa has grown by 30% year-on-year. In the course of this growth, its European headquarter in Unterschleißheim near Munich was established, and managed industrial Ethernet switches, embedded computers and solutions for wireless industrial data transmission were added to the product portfolio. In the meantime, in addition to the facilities in Unterschleißheim, Moxa has a subsidiary in France as well as sales offices in the UK and in Spain with more than 50 employees, and counting.

Moxa‘s proprietary ring protocol Turboring, a self-healing redundancy technology with under 20ms recovery at full load of 250 Ethernet switches, has become a main component of reliable, redundant industrial networks since 2003. It was followed by Turbochain in 2011, an advanced redundancy technology that overcomes the inflexibility of mesh, the slow recovery times of STP/RSTP, the limited interoperability, and the limited number of rings of ring redundancy.
A milestone of Moxa‘s history of the last 10 years was the introduction of their embedded computing product line in 2004. Today, the company offers a broad range of embedded computers for different industrial applications, with different processors, operating systems, storage capacities, form factors, and device interfaces.

As a result of Moxa‘s specialization in the energy and transportation industries, the Powertrans IEC 61850-3 Ethernet switch for substation automation was launched in 2008, and a matching IEC61850-compliant SCADA server platform in 2010. Today, they offer complete solutions for the specific requirements of Smart Grids, in the renewable energies industry, in energy transmission and distribution, and in automated meter reading. Moxa´s products for the energy market are IEC 61850 and IEEE61850-3 certified, and they comply with IEEE 1588 for precise time synchronization.

Camera Extreme
Since 2010, the comprehensive portfolio has been complemented by industrial video networking technology. The growing need for flexible, failsafe video surveillance solutions was one of the reasons for Moxa to enter the security market. IP video surveillance customers require a broad portfolio of cameras, including wall-mount, dome and gun-type cameras. In addition to several other camera models, Moxa launched Vport 36-MP in 2012, the world‘s first rugged IP camera that withstands environmental temperatures ranging from -40 to 75°C without a heater or cooling fan. The industrial-grade, H.264 box-type IP camera combines HD resolution (1280 x 720), advanced intelligent video analysis technology and de-mist technology to enhance surveillance system efficiency while delivering state-of-the art video quality. In 2013, Moxa has launched the Vport 26, an IP 66 day and night outdoor dome camera with -40 to 75 °C operating temperature.

Video surveillance networks require hierarchic structures that are covered by different types of high-performance industrial Ethernet switches. Moxa offers the complete range of switches, including core, distribution and edge switches. Video converters, video network recorders and embedded computers with wireless modules round off the video networking portfolio.

Transport Data Transport
The company‘s products for the railway industry include video surveillance, communication, passenger infotainment and signaling and control applications as well as wireless train-to-ground communication. They comply with EN 50155 and 50121-4, and they are characterized by rugged design with ultimate vibration and shock resistance for safe operation in extreme conditions. This also applies to Moxa‘s products for transportation. They comply with NEMA TS2 and Emark and they ensure real-time availability, continued IP surveillance, weatherproof operation and reliability in traffic and intelligent transportation applications. These include tasks such as tunnel monitoring, toll collection and speed control systems on highways, in buses and public transportation, or monitoring of public spaces in cities and communities. Moxa‘s products are also used in marine applications, for example in Ethernet networks aboard ships and vessels that utilize their IEC 60945, DNV, IACS-E10, and ECDIS compliant marine panel PCs, displays and ECDIS computers. In addition to the broad range of applications in factory and process automation, Moxa provides a range of ATEX and marine certified products for the oil and gas industry.

The Trend - Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 implies that billions of devices are expected to be networked with each other: machines, facilities, work pieces and components will trade data and information in real time. In the future, the fourth industrial revolution will usher in an age of „decentralized" production. In the light of this, operators are always on the lookout for economical ways of connecting legacy devices to a network, and they are particularly interested in solutions that leverage existing IT management technologies. A common strategy in today´s industrial environment is to link existing automation networks to an Ethernet backbone. „Profinet" is the open industrial Ethernet standard for automation and the popular Ethernet-based industrial protocol of devices. It is expected to grow faster than other Ethernet-based industrial protocols.

In addition, the professional organization that created Profinet also developed a fieldbus protocol called Profibus, which has gained popularity due to its emphasis on real-time operation and reliability for field devices in industrial automation. Consequently, solutions that support a combination of Profinet and Profibus are the most suitable ones for integrating automation and IT systems to achieve an information-driven plant that can respond quickly to production errors, and thus minimize adverse impact on the business.

Moxa‘s Mgate proxy works as an agent that transfers data between the Profibus and Profinet networks and allows engineers to monitor proxy status via their computer‘s web browser. With data import/export and log recording capabilities, this monitoring tool streamlines device configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting, and also supports encryption functions. Moreover, Moxa offers industrial plug-and-play Profinet switches and Profinet to fiber converters for the convergence of industrial automation networks. Moxa is ready to outperform on the requirements of Industry 4.0, and on its customers‘ need for high-performance products and service.