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Networking in Extreme Conditions?
222 asks: "Mission: Create an intermediate distribution frame. Difficulty: A few feet away, industrial equipment will be generating roughly 2000 degree heat. Bonus: Keep the network switches inside the IDF from melting. Does anyone have experience in making IT work in such extreme conditions? Is there an enclosure in existence that can handle this type of abuse? This is essentially what I've been asked to accomplish, and now I'm asking my fellow readers for help: Can it be done?"
Having worked on and in a networked environment for a 24-hour steel mill, I can predict that you'll have just as much trouble with interference as you will with heat. Assuming you overcome the heat issue, whatever's generating it will also be generating so much interference you'll be lucky to get 10mbits from a gigabit line.
Our solution was to use fiber for pretty much everything, to the point that we were using so much that it was simpler to use fiber for every tasks than mix in cat5.
Regarding the heat issue, if you're based as an IT specialist in an industrial environment, then you have to liase with the site engineers for this kind of task. It's outside of your experience/training/knowledge, so don't succumb to vanity and assume that you have the intelligence to pull through it unaided. Such a place will already have other heat and interference-sensitive equipment which has been installed by engineers on-site, and they'll be able to do the same for your equipment.
Expect a hefty price tag for installing a suitable thermal casing and ventilation system. Or after due consideration and consultation, if it can't feasibly be done then that's the end of the discussion.