Real-World Industrial
Connectivity Scenarios
From remote maintenance to OT/IT segmentation — see how Simplinx solves the connectivity and data challenges that matter most in Industry 4.0.
Remote Maintenance
Fix machines anywhere — without sending a field engineer.
Machine downtime costs thousands per hour. Sending a field engineer to a remote site takes days and costs significantly more. Traditional VPN solutions require IT involvement at every customer site — a friction that makes remote access impractical in most factory environments.
The SMX-RNS20 creates a direct DTLS-encrypted P2P tunnel between the field device and the service engineer's PC. Only outbound TCP 443 is required — no inbound firewall ports, no VPN concentrator, no IT coordination. Connection is established in under a minute from SX-Client.
- Cut mean time to repair from days to hours
- Zero IT configuration at the customer site — only outbound TCP 443 required
- Industrial data never passes through Simplinx servers — direct P2P encrypted channel
- Connects over Ethernet, USB Wi-Fi adapter, or USB phone tethering — no local network needed
OT/IT Network Segmentation
Isolate the production network. Block everything that isn't explicitly permitted.
Production networks are routinely connected to office LANs for data access and monitoring. When that boundary is enforced only by software policy, a single misconfiguration exposes PLCs, drives, and safety systems to the broader network. Legacy OT equipment was not designed with network security in mind and cannot be patched.
The SMX-GTW10 is installed between the office LAN (WAN port) and the production network (LAN ports). Its stateful firewall blocks all traffic by default. Bidirectional access lists define exactly which IP addresses on either side are permitted to communicate — per device, per protocol, per direction. A real-time blocked packet monitor shows every dropped connection with source, destination, protocol, port, and MAC address.
- Default-deny stateful firewall — all traffic blocked unless explicitly permitted
- Bidirectional access control: separate WAN→LAN and LAN→WAN rules per device
- Real-time blocked packet monitor: source, destination, protocol, port, MAC
- Multi-subnet routing — bridge networks on different IP ranges without reconfiguring field devices
- Hardware-level enforcement — no software policy that can be accidentally disabled
Per-Vendor Machine Access
Give each manufacturer access to their machine — and nothing else.
A single production line may include machines from five or more different OEM suppliers. Each OEM needs to access their own machine for firmware updates, diagnostics, and service. A traditional VPN gives each supplier a view of the entire production network. Managing individual firewall rules per supplier — and rotating credentials — is operationally unsustainable.
The SMX-GTW10 assigns a unique virtual IP address to each machine on the office-side (WAN) interface. Each virtual IP has its own Allowed IPs list — restricting access to a specific external address or range. The OEM engineer connects to the virtual address and reaches only their machine; no other device is visible. Combined with an SMX-RNS20 on the machine itself, the engineer's path is fully encrypted end-to-end from outside the factory.
- Virtual IP per machine — each OEM connects to a dedicated address mapped only to their device
- Per-virtual-IP Allowed IPs list — access restricted to authorised source addresses
- No IP configuration changes required on PLCs or HMIs
- Port forwarding maps specific application ports (HMI software, web UI, programming interface)
- Full network isolation: each vendor's session is invisible to all other devices on the floor
Predictive Monitoring & Alerts
Catch failures before they happen. React in minutes, not days.
Most industrial equipment fails in predictable patterns, but operators only find out when a machine stops. Alarm setpoints are configured in PLCs but notifications never reach the right person at the right time. Without continuous tag logging, there is no data to reconstruct what happened before a failure.
SX-IO, pre-installed on both the SMX-IoT10 and SMX-RNS20, collects tags from PLCs and sensors via 7 protocol drivers: Modbus TCP, Modbus RTU, OPC-UA, Siemens S7, OMRON FINS, and Serial Port. Every tag value is stored in the local historian database. Alarm conditions are evaluated on the device — threshold crossings, state changes, or custom JavaScript expressions. When a condition is met, SX-IO sends an email or SMS with a configurable message body.
- 7 protocol drivers — connect to any PLC, drive, or sensor brand simultaneously
- Local historian retains data through network outages — no data loss
- Event-driven alerts: email and SMS with configurable daily send limits
- Condition types: threshold crossing, state change, or custom JavaScript expression
- JavaScript tag scripts transform raw PLC values without modifying the PLC program
Cloud & Database Integration
Production data in your cloud or database — live, buffered, zero loss.
Production data is locked inside PLCs and local historians. Management, analytics teams, and ERP systems need access to it — but getting data out reliably, without loss during connectivity interruptions, and in a format compatible with cloud platforms requires custom integration that most OT teams cannot build or maintain.
SX-IO connects to cloud IoT platforms (AWS IoT, Azure IoT Hub, Google Cloud, MQTT brokers) and writes directly to external SQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MS SQL). Message format per cloud topic is defined in JavaScript — producing any JSON structure required. An offline buffer queues unsent data on the device and syncs automatically when the connection is restored. Publish interval, topic mapping, and tag selection are configured per group from the browser UI.
- Native connectors: AWS IoT, Azure IoT Hub, Google Cloud, MQTT
- External SQL: write to PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MS SQL with event-driven or cyclic inserts
- Offline buffer — data queued on-device during outages; auto-syncs on reconnection
- JavaScript message formatter — produce any JSON structure per cloud topic
- Configurable publish interval per tag group — balance bandwidth and data resolution
Machine Line Efficiency & OEE
Know exactly when your machines run, idle, or fail — and why.
Production managers rely on operators' manual logs or end-of-shift summaries to understand why a line underperformed. By the time the data reaches a decision-maker, the context is lost and the root cause is guesswork. Without timestamped state data from the PLC itself, OEE improvement is impossible to sustain.
SX-IO reads machine state tags directly from PLCs and maps them to the 17 OMAC standard states. Every transition is timestamped and stored in the local historian. The built-in browser dashboard visualises state timelines over any selected time range — daily, weekly, or custom. Automated email summaries can be scheduled daily, weekly, or monthly. Data can be forwarded to MES, ERP, or cloud analytics platforms via MQTT, REST, or direct SQL insert.
- 17 OMAC standard machine states — every transition timestamped and stored locally
- State timeline visualisation — inspect any time range directly in the browser
- Automated email summaries: daily, weekly, or monthly schedule per machine or line
- Export to MES, ERP, or cloud analytics via MQTT, REST, or SQL
- No additional software licence — SX-IO runs natively on the device
Which Scenario Fits Your Project?
Tell us about your environment and we'll recommend the right Simplinx device and configuration for your application.