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Industrial Ethernet Guide - Network Topologies
The following is part of A Comprehensible Guide to Industrial Ethernet by Wilfried Voss.Distributed Control, and the advantages that come with it, is best demonstrated through the classic, lean Bus network structure. There are, however, several different network topologies that serve virtually the same purpose but, at the same time, have their individual characteristics that are [...]
Industrial Ethernet Guide - The Benefits of Distributed Control
The following is part of A Comprehensible Guide to Industrial Ethernet by Wilfried Voss.The advantages of distributed over central control, reduced wiring and distributed intelligence, as briefly mentioned in the previous chapter, amount not only to significant cost savings through the reduction of efforts during design and operation but also opens the door to supporting application [...]
Industrial Ethernet Guide - Central Vs. Distributed Control
The following is part of A Comprehensible Guide to Industrial Ethernet by Wilfried Voss.Central Control is based on a single CPU burdened with the entire automation task. Consequently, the data traffic between the CPU and the hardware interfaces is very high. Central Control requires the use of a high-performance (i.e., fast) CPU, especially when it comes to real-time control.As the blow [...]
CAN-in-Automation (CiA) To Launch CAN XL During International CAN Conference
Today, CAN-in-Automation (CiA - not related to the American Homeland Security Department) announced its intention to launch yet another flavor of the ever-popular CAN Bus technology, namely CAN XL, which supports an extra-large (XL) payload of up to 2048 bytes. For more information on CAN XL, we have to wait until after the announcement during the [...]
Industrial Ethernet Guide - Introduction to Fieldbus Systems
The following is part of A Comprehensible Guide to Industrial Ethernet by Wilfried Voss.Note: One of the fundamental advantages of Industrial Ethernet, besides its vast speed, lies in the fact that it owns all the beneficial features of a standard Fieldbus system and then a bit more. Admittedly, it shares these advantages with a significant number [...]
Industrial Ethernet Guide - World Market For Industrial Ethernet
The following is part of A Comprehensible Guide to Industrial Ethernet by Wilfried Voss.A report, "The World Market for Industrial Ethernet," by the independent UK-based research organization, IMS Research (now part of HIS Inc.), contained data about the total quantity of installed Ethernet nodes.The analyses were divided into regions, product groups, and industries. According to the study, EtherNet/IP had the [...]
Industrial Ethernet Guide - The Costs of Industrial Ethernet
The following is part of A Comprehensible Guide to Industrial Ethernet by Wilfried Voss.“You can’t go to your local computer store and buy an Ethernet router for your machine.” – Advice found at a technology forumThe lowering costs of Ethernet hardware have made Ethernet an increasingly attractive option for industrial networking applications. However, while the costs for [...]
Industrial Ethernet Guide - The Ethernet Technology Plant Of The Future
The following is part of A Comprehensible Guide to Industrial Ethernet by Wilfried Voss.Besides its definite technological advantages for automation and control tasks, Industrial Ethernet offers new perspectives for the manufacturing process that were not possible with other, established industrial networking technologies. For the longest time, access to existing production information was gated by disparate, proprietary, and closed systems.In general, the increased [...]
Industrial Ethernet Guide - The Motivation For Industrial Ethernet
The following is part of A Comprehensible Guide to Industrial Ethernet by Wilfried Voss.The primary motivation for using Industrial Ethernet technologies can be described with only one word: Speed.The Ethernet TCP/IP communication according to IEEE 802.3 supports 100 Mbit/sec over distances of 100 meters (~300 feet) between two devices (100BaseTx) or up to 2,000 meters (~6,000 feet), respectively (100BaseFx). No [...]
Industrial Ethernet Guide - Selecting The "Right" Ethernet Technology
The following is part of A Comprehensible Guide to Industrial Ethernet by Wilfried Voss."I daresay that your best bet is to talk to a vendor that you are used to dealing with and that you trust. Having support when implementing a network is more important than which network you pick.” – Advice found at a technology forumSelecting the “right” [...]