High Speed Industrial Ethernet Technology Revolutionizes Off-highway Vehicle Automation Architectures

摘要

While several communications networks and protocols have been developed to handle controls for distributed I/O, the requirements to handle increased amounts of data to be transferred have rendered these buses inadequate, and many systems resigned to having multiple buses handle data and control. TCP/IP over Ethernet can handle the throughput requirements, but it fails to deliver the jitter-free determinism required for real-time applications. Ethernet POWERLINK is a patent-free, open source protocol that is very efficient and effective at handling large real-time data requirements of modern off-road vehicles and equipment. This paper will show how this real-time Ethernet standard addresses both data and control needs on a single wire, while reducing design costs, minimizing system jitter, and achieving maximum system performance.