Patton (News - Alert) is now taking orders for its new U.S.-manufactured CopperLink CL1314R Ruggedized Ethernet Extender and CL1314MDE Ruggedized Multi-Drop Ethernet Extender and Repeater, which expand upon the Patton CopperLink CL1314 series of Ethernet extenders. First announced in May 2012, these products are now shipping.

Both the CL1314R and CL1314MDE feature simple plug-and-play installation with standard RJ45 connectivity and are useful for serial-to-IP migration, as well as the conversion of copper-based RS-232, RS-485 or RS-422 data transmission circuits to Ethernet IP, eliminating the need for new Ethernet wiring.

In fact, products in the CL1314 series are capable of leveraging standard copper-wire network cabling to interconnect IP-enabled devices that are up to 4.26 miles apart. Both products were also designed to meet IP40 specifications with a sturdy aluminum enclosure capable of withstanding operating temperatures as low as -40 degrees C and as high as positive 85. As such, they are ideal for railways, highways, industrial automation and other large-scale industrial scenarios.

The CL1314R and CL1314MDE both transparently support TCP Modbus, Profinet IO, Bacnet and Canopen in serial-to-network applications, while also allowing other higher-layer protocols — VLAN tagging, multicast addressing, VPN with IPsec, IP-video compression schemes — to pass transparently.

The CL1314MDE stands apart from the CL1314R, however, as it features Patton's latest Ethernet Extension technology: Multi-Drop Ethernet. This means that the CL1314MDE serves as an Ethernet repeater with Ethernet drop-and-insert capability, which allows for multi-drop IP networking and long distance Ethernet LAN bridging with Ethernet segments stretched up to 4.26 miles per hop.

The other primary difference between the two models is that the CL1314MDE features four auto-sensing full/half duplex 10/100Base-T Ethernet ports, while the CL1314R has only two.

Earlier this year, Patton 's SmartNode 4670 VoIP IAD with ADSL Interface won the 2012 Internet Telephony (News - Alert) Product of the Year Award.

More recently, the company selected ABP Technology to distribute its new BODi rS line of bandwidth-on-demand Internet bonding routers.