Ethernet has been used in industrial plant settings for decades
for communication between PCs, PLCs, and HMIs,
as well as to various devices and servo drives on the plant floor
through variants such as Ethernet/IP and Profinet
Single-Pair Ethernet, or SPE,
is a new communication standard for factory, process, and building automation.
Industrial automation suppliers like TEConnectivity
are developing products that support SPE,
and these new, innovative products will begin to arrive on the market very soon.
SPE is a communication infrastructure that is well-suited for
and will enable the more rapid deployment of
integrated strategies,
such as the “Industrial Internet of Things,” or IIoT.
IEEE 802.3cg and IEEE 802.3bp
are a few of the Single-Pair Ethernet standards
that support network speeds up to 1 gigabit per second
and support for multi-drop topologies.
SPE will allow Ethernet communications and power to be delivered to devices
through a single cable configuration.
This means IP communication can be brought down to the lowest automation level,
offering full transparency from sensors and actuators
all the way up to the cloud.
Other benefits of Single-Pair Ethernet
include reduced wiring costs,
reduced node costs,
reduced power consumption,
and data communications via a single pair of wires.
Automation suppliers, such as TE Connectivity,
are engineering and providing new cable and connector configurations
to support this new protocol.
Standards IEC 63171-6
and IEC 63171-7 have been developed for SPE
to ensure interconnectivity between SPE devices.
When deployed, SPE will offer a substitution pathway
for upgrading legacy Fieldbus systems
with low-cost cables,
integrated device power,
and a choice of data topologies.
RealPars and TE Connectivity
are teaming up to bring a comprehensive course on Single-Pair Ethernet
to the realpars.com learning platform.
This course will provide an in-depth look
at the Ethernet communication protocol
and how information is transmitted from sender to receiver.
We will cover how Ethernet networks have traditionally been constructed
and some of the advantages and limitations
Ethernet has in industrial automation networking.
The OSI communication model,
packet encoding,
and message transmission and delivery will be covered,
showing how levels above the physical and data link layers
are substantially unchanged in SPE.
The course will then take a deep dive into
the IEEE 802.3cg
and IEEE 802.3bp standards
and how it provides the groundwork for a physical
layer that allows for multiple topologies to deliver data and power
not only to PCs, PLCs, and motor drives
but also to sensors and devices on the plant floor.
This will enable Single-Pair Ethernet
to be used at all layers of the automation system,
allowing SPE to be the only
communication protocol required in the plant.
No more gateways,
differing cable and connector types,
or data translation and mapping tables.
So how does this data reliably get transmitted throughout the plant?
The IEC 63171 standards for cable connectors
will help ensure compatibility between sensors and cabling systems
for Single-Pair Ethernet.
TE Connectivity and other vendors
are working together on this IEC standard
to support interconnectivity
and to give manufacturers the assurance that their SPE systems
will work the first time and long into the future.
In this new course,
several case studies will also be presented.
The use of SPE in Process Automation
from Level 4 down to Level 0
will be demonstrated
using various topologies to deliver power and data to sensors,
plant-floor devices,
computing nodes, and logic processors.
An upgrade path from Foundation Fieldbus,
Profibus PA,
and other two-wire networks to Single-Pair Ethernet
will be covered,
demonstrating the additional power of SPE.
The future of Process Automation will be shown
through case studies centered around robotics,
operator-assisted cobots,
and automated guided vehicles
operating on an integrated SPE network.
Never before have automation engineers been able to configure,
monitor, control,
and maintain all devices in a plant
using a single network.
We hope you will join TE Connectivity and RealPars
in experiencing the future of automation
through our course in Single-Pair Ethernet.
Whether you are a technician,
a new automation engineer,
or a seasoned professional,
you will benefit from this opportunity
to learn about this new, innovative technology.