Enhanced Control and Monitoring of Critical Urban Flood Control Systems

Challenges
Solution
Conclusion

Taiwan’s Vulnerability to Typhoons

Positioned on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean between Japan and the Philippines, Taiwan faces an omnipresent threat from typhoons. Typhoons are the most serious natural hazard in Taiwan, seasonal disasters that often cause significant damage and loss of life. The area around the city of Taipei is low-lying and surrounded by mountains, making the danger from typhoon-induced floods even more severe. To address this danger, the governments of Taiwan and Taipei have invested heavily in measures to control and mitigate the effects of typhoons and flooding. EtherWAN switches play a crucial role in achieving a robust, cost-effective, and reliable flood control solution.

Flood Prevention Monitoring Challenges

The flood prevention system consists of numerous components spread across a wide geographical area. Remote pumping stations and sluice gates are equipped with various devices, including IP phones, PLC controllers, and sensors to detect water levels and water quality. All these components must be interconnected and linked to a network that enables remote monitoring of conditions and control of sluice gates by personnel at the city Flood Control Headquarters.

Due to the potential for catastrophic damage and loss of life in the event of a failure at a pumping station or sluice gate during a typhoon, network infrastructure reliability is of paramount importance. Power over Ethernet (PoE) equipment is required for surveillance cameras, and the solution must be resistant to extreme temperatures and humidity. In the event of any network failure, the system's recovery time must be as quick as possible.

Application Requirements

Connection with existing devices and sensors
High MTBF of network switches
Video surveillance system connectivity
Full functionality even in high humidity and high temperature
Network redundancy with low failover time
Layer 3 network routing for linking zones in different subnets
1/10 Gigabit backbone for maximized transmission speed and future system expansion

High-Performance Network Infrastructure for Flood Control Zones

The system is divided into six zones and is configured to accommodate additional zones in future development stages. Each zone contains a group of sluice gate stations and a group of pumping stations, spread over an area of approximately 120 square kilometers (46 square miles). To provide reliable Power over Ethernet to the many devices at the sluice gates and pumping stations, EX78000 and EX76000 switches are deployed in a ring formation, and each zone is configured as an individual subnet. EtherWAN's proprietary alpha-ring protocol is employed to provide redundancy and minimize downtime in the event of a dropped connection. A full gigabit, 24-port managed switch, the EX77900, connects the alpha-ring subnet to a series of two EG99000 Layer 3 switches, which handle IP routing from the subnets to a regional headquarters and act as a robust 10-gigabit backbone. All switches are hardened against extreme conditions, including the high temperatures and humidity often experienced during the height of summer.

Excellence in Modern Flood Prevention Systems

Modern flood prevention systems can comprise dozens of pumping stations and sluice gates, each equipped with numerous devices and controllers that require real-time data monitoring. EtherWAN switches have proven to be highly suitable for such critical flood prevention network infrastructure. Their hardened-grade equipment, which supports both copper and fiber optic connections, along with alpha-ring technology and Layer 3 routing features, offers an exceptionally dependable and cost-effective solution for essential city-wide networks where lives and property are at risk.