Resolving IP Conflicts Among Aged Equipment in Factories

When enterprises expand their production scale and operational capabilities, the introduction of new equipment and processes becomes inevitable.

 However, this does not necessarily mean that all aged equipment will be phased out. Replacing all aged equipment is costly and involves lengthy construction periods, exposing enterprises to significant production downtime and potential order fulfillment delays—a riskier approach than its benefits warrant. Therefore, a more suitable digitalization strategy is to gradually replace or upgrade aged equipment while maintaining production capacity.

For aged equipment that cannot have their IP addresses modified due to hardware or software limitations, and for which the manufacturer may no longer provide technical support, modifying the program can introduce subsequent fault risks.

 In such cases, factories can consider implementing NAT (Network Address Translation) technology modifications. WideIOT's network segment isolator (NAT gateway) serves as an effective tool to resolve such issues. This device offers cross-network segment isolation and IP conversion capabilities, enabling the transformation of devices with identical IP addresses into those with distinct IP addresses, thereby avoiding IP conflicts.

Additionally, it supports network segment isolation and NAT conversion for multiple devices (such as PLCs, CNCs, etc.), allowing multiple devices in the workshop to be unified under the same network segment's IP address.

 This facilitates online programming, data acquisition, remote management, and other operations. By uniformly allocating and managing IP addresses for factory equipment, network security and stability are ensured, while also concealing the true IP addresses of devices to prevent unauthorized access.

Through the NAT gateway, aged equipment can be integrated into new industrial IoT networks, enabling data acquisition and remote monitoring. This reduces the costs and construction periods associated with digital transformation, fosters a clear and reliable network topology structure for easier management and inspection, and promotes the digitalization level of enterprises.