Why Ethernet?

Today Ethernet is the most widespread communication technology in electronic data processing systems. In the office environment, Ethernet has become established as the standard technology.

Ethernet offers a wide range of transmission media such as copper, glass fibre, and wireless; data transmission rates range from 10 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s through 1 Gbit/s to 10 Gbit/s.

This technology is now also gaining increasing importance in industrial automation. Along with the advantages of standardised communication, a seamless infrastructure can be realised that stretches from the office to the machine or sensor.

In this way, Industrial Ethernet not only allows process and manufacturing data to be available at the field level, but also transparently integrates that information into higher-level data acquisition systems.

An example of such an Industrial Ethernet network hierarchy could be as follows:

Other reasons to deploy Industrial Ethernet include:

• The fieldbuses available on the market use different types of physical transmission; as a result bus-specific infrastructure components are necessary and the interface to the higher level networks requires gateways.
• Ethernet offers a dramatic increase in bandwidth compared to fieldbuses (example: Profibus DP up to 12 Mbit/s - Ethernet up to 1(10) Gigabit/s).
• Ethernet makes vertical integration possible.
• Ethernet is an open protocol.
• The majority of fieldbus manufacturers have developed their own protocols that build on standard Ethernet: Modbus/TCP, EtherNet/IP, ProfiNet, FF HSE, Powerlink, Vnet/IP.
  
• Continuous further development.
• Large number of suppliers on the market.
• Future-proof technology.
• Low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
• Remote diagnostics via Internet/Intranet.
• Predictive diagnostics using management software, for example SNMP or OPC.