🚆 Railway India 5 min read

Custom Layer 2 Unmanaged Ethernet Switch Solution for Northern Railways

Hashtag International built a custom Layer 2 Unmanaged Ethernet switch with 8 SFP and 8 copper combo ports for Northern Railways, filling a gap that no standard supplier in India could.

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Client

Northern Railways

The Challenge

Northern Railways needed a very specific kind of Ethernet switch for its network setup. Not fully managed, but Layer 2 unmanaged switch. Something in between, with limited management capabilities that offered more control than a basic switch without the added complexity of a full management suite.
On top of that, the switch had to come with 8 SFP ports and 8 copper combo ports. That exact combination simply wasn't available off the shelf in India. No standard product fit the bill, which meant a custom-engineered solution was the only way forward.

Our Solution

Hashtag International worked directly with the Northern Railways team to get a clear picture of what was needed, then built around those exact specs.

The result was a customized Layer 2 Unmanaged Ethernet switch that included:

8 dedicated SFP ports for high-speed fibre connectivity.
8 copper combo ports for flexible network deployment.
Layer 2 functionality with selective management capabilities, striking the right balance between managed and unmanaged switching.

A hardware configuration designed specifically for a railway networking environment.
Since nothing like this existed through standard suppliers in India, every part of the solution was engineered from scratch to match what the client actually needed.

Key Outcomes

Custom Solution Unavailable in the Indian Market

Delivered a Layer 2 Unmanaged Ethernet switch with an 8 SFP and 8 copper combo port configuration that no standard supplier in India carried.

100% Specification Compliance

Met every technical requirement, with no compromises on functionality or hardware configuration.

Optimized Network Deployment

Northern Railways could deploy a solution that matched exactly what their connectivity and performance setup required.