“We Still Call It Ethernet”

Different Network, Same Name

Ethernet was first developed over 40 years ago. During that long lifetime, Ethernet has changed almost beyond recognition. Every aspect of Ethernet technology and performance has been improved, often by orders of magnitude.

These improvements have greatly broadened Ethernet's applicability. For example, Ethernet evolved from shared media networks to fully switched and "collision-free" networks. Ethernet data rates have increased from 3MB to 1GB or higher -- an over 300-fold improvement. Ethernet now runs over many physical media and serves as the model for the ubiquitous Wi-Fi wireless networks in our offices and homes. Ethernet networks connect our office telephones and supply power to these phones and a host of other edge devices such as video cameras. But, despite decades of such rapid technological evolution, as Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe wryly notes, "We still call it Ethernet" as if nothing had really changed.

The slow initial adoption of Ethernet in industrial applications derived from the non-deterministic nature of Ethernet networks. Eventually, Ethernet's cost and performance advantages led to widespread adoption in industrial automation products and systems. However to be assured of always operating within in a deterministic operating range, system de-signers had to limit the size and limit access to the Ethernet automation system networks or use specialized silicon to implement network properties that could not be realized with standardized (IEEE 802) Ethernet. Of course such specialized Ethernet solutions are expensive to develop, man-age, and support over a long product lifecycle. EtherCAT, SERCOS III, and PROFINET IRT are examples of industrial Ethernet technologies that extend or use only part of the IEEE 802 technology.

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Keywords: AVnu Alliance, Ethernet, Industrial Ethernet, Time-Sensitive Networks, ARC Advisory Group.