Scenario

Legacy serial devices (such as HVACs, alarm systems, environment sensors and PLCs) need to be connected to a TCP/IP network so they can be accessible by any network application, anytime and from anywhere.

In addition to pure access to the serial devices, the availability of secure access to mission-critical devices (such as PLCs that control an industrial plant) with data encryption and authentication mechanisms is essential to ensure unauthorized access to these devices will not happen.

Solution

Each serial device is connected to a Cyclades-TS100, a secure device server.

The Cyclades-TS100 acts as a serial to Ethernet gateway by connecting to the serial device and then converting data traffic from the serial interface to the Ethernet and vice-versa. With this process, the Cyclades-TS100 makes serial data traffic available over the TCP/IP network to any network device, application or user authorized to access it.

Additionally, as a secure device server, the Cyclades-TS100 guarantees that any communication with the serial devices connected to it occurs securely, even when using public networks such as the Internet as the access path. This is accomplished with the use of SSH (Secure Shell) connections between the network device (or application) and the Cyclades-TS100. SSH ensures security with strong encryption of all data traffic between the management workstation and the Cyclades-TS.