Part 1 — Foundations
Chapters 1–4. OSI model, Ethernet frames, TCP/IP, MAC addressing, switching, VLANs, 802.1Q, IP subnetting, routing, STP, RSTP, ring topologies, LACP. The building blocks every engineer needs before touching industrial equipment.
Industrial Networking for Busy Professionals
21 chapters. 76 pages. 45 Python examples. Every term defined. From OSI to MRP rings to IEC 62443 to Hirschmann product selection — in one place.
Six parts. One learning arc.
Section titled “Six parts. One learning arc.”Part 2 — Services and Infrastructure
Chapters 5–8. DHCP, DNS, NTP, SNMP, NAT/PAT, FHRP. Firewalls, IDS/IPS, load balancers, OT-specific appliances. Wireless 802.11 standards, WPA3, channels. Cloud deployment models, VPC, security groups, NFV.
Part 3 — Industrial Networking
Chapters 9–12. OT vs IT, Purdue Model, fieldbus (PROFIBUS, Modbus, DeviceNet). PROFINET RT/IRT, EtherNet/IP, HSR/PRP, TSN. MRP in depth — roles, frames, timing, troubleshooting. Hirschmann product families, HiOS, HiVision.
Part 4 — Security
Chapters 13–14. DoS/DDoS, VLAN hopping, ARP poisoning, MAC flooding, DNS poisoning. OT threat landscape (Stuxnet, Industroyer, TRITON). IEC 62443 security levels, DMZ architecture, practical hardening.
Part 5 — Operations and Troubleshooting
Chapters 15–16. Network documentation, change management, SNMP monitoring, disaster recovery (RPO/RTO/MTTR). CompTIA 7-step troubleshooting methodology, Wireshark filters, cable testers, interface counters.
Part 6 — Hirschmann Product Deep Dives
Chapters 17–21. Every Hirschmann product family covered with real specifications: DIN rail, rack mount, IP67, security routers, industrial wireless. Plus market-specific designs for railway, substation, and hazardous locations — with a product selection guide.
What makes this book different
Section titled “What makes this book different”Every term defined on first use
No assumed knowledge. Every acronym and technical term is defined the first time it appears — MRP (Media Redundancy Protocol), PVID (Port VLAN ID), GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Event) — all of them.
45 Python examples, all open-source
Every code example is a real, runnable script using free tools: Scapy for packet capture, Netmiko for switch automation, pymodbus for Modbus TCP, asyncua for OPC UA, pysnmp for SNMP polling. Install everything with one uv add command.
Covers CompTIA Network+ N10-009
All five exam domains are covered: Networking Concepts (23%), Network Implementation (20%), Network Operations (19%), Network Security (14%), and Network Troubleshooting (24%).
Grounded in the 2024 Hirschmann product catalog
Part 6 is built directly from the Belden/Hirschmann Essentials 2024 catalog. Real product names, real specifications, real order codes — not generic descriptions.
Reads as a narrative, not a reference dump
Every chapter opens with a bridge to the previous one. Every section ends with a sentence leading into the next. The book builds knowledge progressively — you always know where you are and why it matters.
Industrial-specific depth
Goes beyond Network+ into PROFINET RT/IRT, MRP convergence timing, IEC 62443 zone/conduit model, Hirschmann HiOS configuration, OT-specific attack vectors, and the full Hirschmann product portfolio.
Jump in
Section titled “Jump in” 1.1 The OSI Model The seven-layer reference model every network engineer uses as a shared language.
9.1 OT vs IT Networks Why industrial networks have different priorities, constraints, and failure consequences than IT networks.
11.1 MRP Overview Media Redundancy Protocol — the standard ring redundancy protocol for industrial Ethernet.
21.4 Product Selection Guide Choose the right Hirschmann product for any application — from SPIDER III to DRAGON MACH to EAGLE40.