Serial Hubs
Connect Serial Devices to Ethernet
A Serial Hub connects devices with USB, RS232, RS422, or RS485 serial interfaces to a local area network for transmission of serial data over wired or wireless Ethernet. The most common application for a Serial Hub is out-of-band management of routers, switches, and firewalls as an efficient way to recover equipment when the network is down. It serves as a single hardware solution for a secure alternate route to monitor IT, networking, security, and power devices from multiple vendors.
With a physical wired or wireless (LTE or WiFi) Ethernet network connection on one side, and one or more serial ports on the other side, Serial Hubs are designed to operate as if you are locally connected to the serial port with a direct cable connection. This is perfect in M2M communication where client access needs to be made independent of any operating system or proprietary protocol. While some Serial Hubs are very simple devices, it is best practice to use one with advanced security functionality, data encryption, and user authentication to ensure network data transmissions, and access to network equipment is protected.
Installing a Serial Hub is ideal if you need to:
- Manage the serial console port on servers, routers, switches, PBX’s, firewalls, etc... over Ethernet or through out-of-band connections
- Replace serial cabling with Ethernet but maintain the use of devices that were active on the serial network
- Set-up virtual COM ports to connect PC or Servers to remote serial devices over Ethernet
- Communicate to multiple serial devices at the same time across a network
- Replace existing serial dial-up modem connections
- Connect serial PLCs or serial signage equipment to Ethernet
IOLAN Serial Hubs
Perle offers multiple Serial Hub form factors to fit any project specification: Device Servers, Terminal Servers, and Console Servers. Regardless of the form factor you choose, all IOLAN Serial Hubs come with high-performance software functionality and are IPv6 compatible. With innovative TrueSerial® Technology, Perle IOLAN Serial Hubs guarantee authentic serial communications and maintain device protocol integrity across Ethernet.
Serial Hub Applications
Using RAW TCP Sockets
A raw TCP socket connection which can be initiated from the IOLAN serial to Ethernet converter or from the remote host/server. This can either be on a point-to-point or shared basis where a serial device can be shared amongst multiple devices. TCP sessions can be initiated either from the TCP server application or from the Perle IOLAN serial to Ethernet converter.
Using RAW UDP Sockets
For use with UDP based applications, Perle IOLANs can convert serial data for transport across UDP packets either on a point-to-point basis or shared across multiple devices.
