Industrial Ethernet in the communications landscape
The LAN standard from the office sector.
Ethernet currently has a market share of over 90% with a rising trend, thus placing it in the pole position in the LAN landscape worldwide. The specification of this baseband LAN was developed in the 1970s and standardized in the international IEEE 802.3 standard. Ethernet has continued to experience rapid development and established itself in all speed ranges and application areas.
Milestones include:
Ethernet forms the basis for overlaid network protocols such as TCP/IP. TCP/IP is responsible for the transport of data between LANs and represents the basis for IT services (e.g. Internet). In addition, this enables different LAN technologies to be easily integrated, e.g. Ethernet with Wireless LAN.
Ethernet components for the office sector are offered by a large number of vendors, but do not always meets the specific requirements of the industrial sector.
For planning, operation and maintenance of Ethernet networks, sufficiently qualified personnel are available worldwide.
The industry-standard version of Ethernet.
It was not only its performance when exchanging large volumes of data that made Ethernet ideal for use in the industrial environment – high availability, reliability, real-time capability, robust connection technology and ease of operation without special IT knowledge have also made this standard suitable for industrial use.
By means of corresponding additions for tough Industrial use, Siemens has shown that Ethernet can also be used successfully in these applications. This approach has been consistently and successfully applied not only for Industrial Ethernet and PROFINET, but also for Industrial WLAN.
Industrial Ethernet offers a powerful area and cell network according to IEEE 802.3 (Ethernet) for industrial applications. This ensures that the widest range of application areas, such as office and production, can be networked with one another. The numerous possibilities of the IT standards, familiar from the office world, can thus also be utilized in production and process automation.
Wherever practical, Industrial Ethernet utilizes innovative Ethernet technology and strengthens it for use in the industrial sector.
Among the Siemens Ethernet components for industrial use, the focus is on compatible successor products and spare parts availability of up to 10 years.
The open Industrial Ethernet standard for automation
With more than three million nodes worldwide, PROFINET is the leading cross-vendor Industrial Ethernet standard (IEC 61158/61784) for automation.
PROFINET increases the companies' success by accelerating processes, boosting productivity, and increasing plant availability.
Advantages at a glance
Note:
In many SIMATIC NET components with management function, extensive parameterization and diagnostics functions are provided over open protocols and interfaces (e.g. Web server, network management).
These open interfaces provide access to those components, which can also be used for illicit activities.
When the above-mentioned functions and the open interfaces and protocols are used (e.g. SNMP, HTTP and Telnet), appropriate security precautions must be implemented to suppress unauthorized access to the components or network, especially from the WAN/Internet.
For this reason, automation networks can be isolated from the remaining corporate network using security applications (e.g. SCALANCE S).
For further information, see the section "Industrial Security".
It is important to note the boundary conditions for use of the specified SIMATIC Net products (order numbers 6GK..., 6XV1) which you can view on the Internet.
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