Industrial Ethernet (IE) is the use of

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

in an industrial environment with protocols that provide determinism and real-time control. Protocols for industrial Ethernet include EtherCAT,

EtherNet/IP EtherNet/IP (IP = Industrial Protocol) is an industrial network protocol that adapts the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) to standard Ethernet. EtherNet/IP is one of the leading industrial protocols in the United States and is widely used in a r ...

PROFINET Profinet (usually styled as PROFINET, as a portmanteau for Process Field Network) is an industry technical standard for data communication over Industrial Ethernet, designed for collecting data from, and controlling equipment in Automation#Indus ...

, POWERLINK, SERCOS III, CC-Link IE, and Modbus TCP. Many industrial Ethernet protocols use a modified

media access control In IEEE 802 LAN/MAN standards, the medium access control (MAC), also called media access control, is the layer that controls the hardware responsible for interaction with the wired (electrical or optical) or wireless transmission medium. Th ...

(MAC) layer to provide low latency and determinism. Some microprocessors provide industrial Ethernet support. Industrial Ethernet can also refer to the use of standard Ethernet protocols with rugged connectors and extended temperature switches in an industrial environment, for

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

process control Industrial process control (IPC) or simply process control is a system used in modern manufacturing which uses the principles of control theory and physical industrial control systems to monitor, control and optimize continuous Industrial processe ...

. Components used in plant process areas must be designed to work in harsh environments of temperature extremes, humidity, and vibration that exceed the ranges for

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

equipment intended for installation in controlled environments. The use of

fiber-optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

Ethernet variants reduces the problems of electrical noise and provides electrical isolation. Some industrial networks emphasized deterministic delivery of transmitted data, whereas Ethernet used

collision detection Collision detection is the computational problem of detecting an intersection of two or more objects in virtual space. More precisely, it deals with the questions of ''if'', ''when'' and ''where'' two or more objects intersect. Collision detect ...

which made transport time for individual data packets difficult to estimate with increasing network traffic. Typically, industrial uses of Ethernet employ full-duplex standards and other methods so that collisions do not unacceptably influence transmission times.

Application environment

Industrial use requires consideration of the environment in which the equipment must operate.

Factory A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

equipment must tolerate a wider range of temperature, vibration, physical contamination and electrical noise than equipment installed in dedicated information-technology wiring closets. Since critical process control may rely on an Ethernet link, the economic cost of interruptions may be high and

high availability High availability (HA) is a characteristic of a system that aims to ensure an agreed level of operational performance, usually uptime, for a higher than normal period. There is now more dependence on these systems as a result of modernization ...

is therefore an essential criterion. Industrial Ethernet networks must interoperate with both current and legacy systems, and must provide predictable performance and maintainability. In addition to physical compatibility and low-level transport protocols, a practical industrial Ethernet system must also provide interoperability of higher levels of the

OSI model The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model is a reference model developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that "provides a common basis for the coordination of standards development for the purpose of systems inter ...

. An industrial network must provide security both from intrusions from outside the plant, and inadvertent or unauthorized use within the plant.Perry S. Marshall, John S. Rinaldi (2004). ''How to Plan, Install and Maintain TCP/IP Ethernet Networks''. ISA. . pp. 1–4. When an industrial network must connect to an office network or external networks, a firewall system can be inserted to control exchange of data between the networks. This network separation preserves the performance and reliability of the industrial network. Industrial environments are often much harsher, often subject to oil sprays, water sprays, and physical vibrations, so often industrial Ethernet requires a more rugged and watertight connector on one or both ends of the Cat 5 or Cat 6 cable, such as M12 connectors or M8 connectors, rather than the

8P8C A modular connector is a type of electrical connector for cords and cables of electronic devices and appliances, such as in computer networking, telecommunication equipment, and audio headsets. Modular connectors were originally developed for ...

connectors commonly used in homes and businesses. Dietmar Röring
"M12 versus RJ45 Ethernet connection systems"
2014.

Advantages and difficulties

Programmable logic controller A programmable logic controller (PLC) or programmable controller is an industrial computer that has been ruggedized and adapted for the control of manufacturing processes, such as assembly lines, machines, robotic devices, or any activity that ...

s (PLCs) communicate using one of several possible open or proprietary protocols, such as

, EtherCAT,

Modbus Modbus (or MODBUS) is a client/server data communications protocol in the application layer. It was originally designed for use with programmable logic controllers (PLCs), but has become a ''de facto'' standardization, standard communication pr ...

, Sinec H1, Profibus,

CANopen CANopen is a communication protocol stack and device profile specification for embedded systems used in automation. In terms of the OSI model, CANopen implements the layers above and including the network layer. The CANopen standard consists of an ...

DeviceNet DeviceNet is a network protocol used in the automation industry to interconnect control devices for data exchange. It utilizes the Common Industrial Protocol over a Controller Area Network media layer and defines an application layer to cover a ra ...

or FOUNDATION Fieldbus. The idea to use standard Ethernet makes these systems more

interoperable Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader de ...

. Some of the advantages over other types of industrial network include: * Increased speed, up from 9.6 kbit/s with

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...

to 1 Gbit/s with

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use in ...

* Ability to use ubiquitous Cat5e/ Cat6 cables * Option to use

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

for increased distance * Ability to use standard

networking hardware Networking hardware, also known as network equipment or computer networking devices, are electronic devices that are required for communication and interaction between devices on a computer network. Specifically, they mediate data transmission in ...

for wired and wireless communication * Ability to have more than two nodes on link, which was possible with

RS-485 RS-485, also known as TIA-485(-A) or EIA-485, is a standard, originally introduced in 1983, defining the electrical characteristics of drivers and receivers for use in serial communications systems. Electrical signaling is balanced, and Telecomm ...

but not with RS-232 * Potential to use

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network, forming a peer-to-peer network of Node ...

architectures as opposed to client–server ones * Better interoperability Difficulties of using industrial Ethernet include: * Migrating existing systems to a new protocol * Real-time performance may suffer for protocols using TCP * Additional complexity associated with network technology * The minimum Ethernet frame size is 64 bytes, while typical industrial communication data sizes can be closer to 1–8 bytes. This protocol overhead affects data transmission efficiency.

References

External links

Industrial Ethernet Advisory Group

Lammermann.eu: Ethernet as a Real-Time Technology
{{Automation protocols es:Red industrial#Soluciones con Ethernet

Application environment

Advantages and difficulties

See also

References

External links