Over the past few decades, Ethernet technology has been a game changer for industries in a variety of areas, from the early days of local area networks, to later broadband networks, to today's Internet. And now, key components of Ethernet technology are being used in industrial control fieldbuses, driving the evolution and evolution of the entire manufacturing ecosystem.
In fact, traditional Ethernet technology and the TCP/IP protocol have been used for many years in the manufacturing industry for enterprise and shop-floor network information systems and management systems for production operations, but rarely for the interaction and communication of control data and information within actual machines and production lines.
The machine controller itself (e.g. PLC, IPC...) and its connection to the actuator (e.g. drive, motor...). etc.) and its interaction with actuators (e.g. drives, motors...) The communication between the machine controller itself (e.g. PLC, IPC, etc.) and its actuators (e.g. drives, motors...) and sensors always requires the use of a deterministic field control bus. Using the traditional TCP/IP protocol, the real-time deterministic requirements for communication from the machine control to the sensors and actuators cannot be realized and fulfilled, so it is not suitable for use as a control layer bus for industrial equipment.
However, in the equipment manufacturing industry, machine builders (e.g. those who build CNC machines, semiconductor devices...) are seeing the reuse of TCP/IP as a control layer bus. However, machine builders in the equipment manufacturing industry (e.g., those making CNC machines, semiconductor equipment, ...) see the value in reusing hardware components in a TCP/IP-based network setup. This is because the explosive growth of the Internet has created a broadly common technical standard for Ethernet communication components (e.g. cards, cables, connectors...). Because the explosive growth of the Internet has created a widely common technical standard for Ethernet communication components (e.g. communication cards, cables, connectors, ...), the cost of these Network Interface Cards (NICs) and TCP cables has been dramatically reduced to a fraction or even a few tenths of the cost of traditional industrial fieldbus cables and Data Acquisition Cards (DAQ cards). As a result, reusing this type of Ethernet hardware will help organizations achieve significant economic savings compared to traditional, dedicated fieldbus configurations in industry.
The economic impact of using Ethernet as a fieldbus is indisputable, as Ethernet components can help to bring about significant system cost reductions while at the same time being very versatile.
For example, with a proprietary fieldbus, a robot manufacturer would have to purchase the entire O&C system components from a single supplier: specialized I/O cards, servo drives, motors, expensive cables, connectors... and so on. etc.
With standard Ethernet-based communication protocols, I/O cards can be replaced by generic Ethernet interfaces, dedicated bus cables can be replaced by generic CAT5 (Category 5 twisted pair) cables, and the cost of servo drive systems can be significantly reduced if the network standard supports multiple suppliers.
At the same time, connecting the components of the machine system using Ethernet will also become easier. For example, the use of generic CAT5 cables, similar to those used for networking home/office computers, will make it easier to manage and maintain equipment than the use of complex, specialized bus communication cables for device controllers and electrical components. These are just some of the economic benefits of Ethernet technology.
The industry quickly realized that while the TCP/UDP/IP protocols could not provide the real-time deterministic response required by industrial control systems, ubiquitous and low-cost Ethernet hardware, including Network Interface Cards (NICs) and CAT5 Ethernet cables, could be used to provide the necessary infrastructure for the networking of industrial control systems, including the use of Ethernet cables and NICs, and the use of CAT5 cables for the networking of industrial control systems. However, ubiquitous and low-cost Ethernet hardware, including network interface cards (NICs) and CAT5 Ethernet cables... can be used in industrial equipment systems to help provide the real-time response needed for control applications.
What is needed is a new real-time communication protocol that uses the hardware physical layer of Ethernet, but also allows the device controller to connect and communicate with all the sensors and actuators in the device with real-time certainty.
Since the beginning of the century, the leading industrial automation manufacturers have introduced at least five different real-time industrial Ethernet communication protocols, such as EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, PowerLink, ProfiNet and SERCOS III ... to name a few. ... and so on. They are all promoted as "standards", claiming to reuse Ethernet protocols or Ethernet hardware and promising to reduce the cost of building real-time control systems for equipment.
One of the main reasons for the emergence of so many "potential standards" is that each has a distinctly different technical approach to reusing Ethernet hardware components (e.g., network interface cards and CAT5 cables), which not only dramatically reduces the cost of the equipment and improves the performance of the machine, but also enables the transmission and interaction of information and data in a way that supports real-time control. transmission and interaction to support real-time deterministic applications.
Perhaps another reason for the coexistence of multiple potential "standard" Ethernet protocols is that these leading industrial automation vendors are attempting to utilize Ethernet technology to save on the overall cost of their system solutions. By extending their product "standards" to Ethernet, customers do gain some advantage and value from Ethernet technology, but in the long run they remain locked into the manufacturer's proprietary network.
In addition, the emergence of new protocols does help users to utilize Ethernet technology to break through the existing performance and cost of their equipment. At the same time, machine builders who adopt the right real-time Ethernet fieldbus standard will also be able to gain a very significant competitive advantage in terms of price/performance compared to any other traditional industrial fieldbus.
However, this may not be so important to machine builders and equipment users anymore, because after all these years of promotion and popularization of Industrial Ethernet technologies and products, the challenge for users is no longer to choose between traditional industrial control buses and Industrial Ethernet, but to face the fierce competition between too many Industrial Ethernet protocols and standards in a complex and crowded market. Instead, in a complex and crowded marketplace, with so many Industrial Ethernet protocols "standards" competing with each other and offering different values and advantages, it is difficult to know which "standard" is the right one to choose. Adopting the wrong (inappropriate) protocol as a standard can mean unnecessary costs and sacrificing competitive advantage due to reduced performance.
In all the discussions about Industrial Real-Time Ethernet, there are some seemingly simple facts that are often overlooked. The choice of a network protocol standard is not just about hard technical specifications and attributes, such as performance and transmission rate... It should also include soft metrics and parameters of the application experience, such as ease of use, openness, independence, risk avoidance, consistency, interoperability, long-term availability, and system distribution characteristics.... These factors, when combined, determine whether a protocol or "standard" will be recognized by users or become widespread in the marketplace.