Case study · Manufacturing
Smart factory connectivity over a mesh network
A wireless network that connects machines and sensors across the shop floor without new cabling.
The challenge
Connecting machines and sensors on a busy shop floor usually means trenching and cabling, which is slow, costly and disrupts production. Lines are also rearranged, so fixed cabling quickly goes out of date.
How Nexapp solved it
Wireless across the floor
Access points link to each other to cover the shop floor, so machines and sensors connect where they stand.
Separate networks for machines and people
Machines, staff and guests get their own SSIDs and VLANs, kept apart by the firewall.
Speaks the site's protocols
RS232/RS485 serial ports, a Modbus RTU/ASCII/TCP gateway, DNP3, IEC 60870-5-101/104 and MQTT, so existing controllers and meters connect without replacement.
One console for every site
Instaroute SDWAN Lite 2.0 shows the health, signal and data usage of every router, with zero-touch set-up and canary firmware rollout, wave by wave.
What changed
- Machines connect without new cabling.
- The network follows the layout when lines move.
- Production traffic stays separate from staff and guest Wi-Fi.
Planning something similar?
A Nexapp engineer can walk you through this deployment and map it to your own sites, links and devices.
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