The SF1 is a stand-alone, unmanaged industrial Fast Ethernet switch that comes in a compact 3U, 18HP, 19" cassette. It provides eight channels at the front panel accessible through RJ45 connectors.

The SF1 is supplied by its integrated, rugged power supply unit (PSU), with a power connector at the front panel. The entire switch consumes less than 7 W and needs no cooling.

The SF1 supports full-duplex and half-duplex operation with auto-negotiation, high-speed non-blocking store-and-forward switching, Quality of Service (QoS) support with four traffic classes IEEE 802.1p and three-level 802.1x security. The switch is fault tolerant and restores itself on its own: If a link is temporarily unavailable, frames can be sent via backup/redundant links (spanning tree protocol / link aggregation) and no data loss occurs. Its built-in test mechanisms make the SF1 an even more reliable component in the communication system.

In addition, the switch can act as Power over Ethernet (PoE) Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE), supplying other devices on ports 1 and 2 with power.

By using an application-specific configuration EEPROM, the SF1 can act similarly to a managed switch with fixed settings. This enables features untypical for unmanaged models like 802.1p priorityand port based priority, port based VLAN or IEEE 802.1q VLAN IDs. Additionally, a service port is accessible at the front panel on an M12 connector, enabling authorized personnel to configure the switch via an SPI interface.

The SF1 was specifically designed for rugged mobile communication systems with high demands. It is thus for example fully compliant with the EN 50155 railway standard. All components inside the cassette are specified for a -40 to +85°C operation temperature. There are no socketed components, hardening the box against shock and vibration. Its PCBs are ready for coating and the switch has a guaranteed minimum standard availability of 5 years.