How Industrial Ethernet Is Reshaping Industries

In the era of Industry 4.0, where machines communicate, automate and optimize processes, the need for robust and reliable networking solutions has never been more critical. Industrial Ethernet has emerged as the backbone of industrial connectivity, enabling seamless communications, enhancing efficiencies and paving the way for advances in various sectors.

Legacy connectivity methods such as serial, twisted pair, coaxial and other proprietary protocols and methods, are now giving way to standards-based Ethernet. This transition is being driven by several key factors such as the need for interoperability across diverse industrial devices, higher bandwidth for data-intensive communications, better integration with information technology (IT)-driven enterprise systems, lower costs incurred in using standard rather than proprietary products and more.

Today’s Ethernet can do much more than provide high-speed connectivity at lower costs. This article presents five key areas where Ethernet-based industrial switches can power smart operations of the future.

1. High-performance infrastructure

Industrial Ethernet helps build a highly resilient, high-performance infrastructure. More than the enterprise, industrial operations rely on continuous uninterrupted operations to meet production targets and deliver services. Network downtime or interruption can result in decreased productivity leading to significant financial losses.

Today’s industrial Ethernet combines enterprise-grade performance and scalability with industrial-strength reliability and resilience. It features multi- and 10-gigabit interfaces to connect high-bandwidth devices and features high switching capacity to handle many connected devices. Industrial Ethernet also enables software-defined networking for greater flexibility, scalability and programmability in network infrastructure.

Several Ethernet-based redundancy protocols are used in industrial networks to provide high availability and fault tolerance. These include high-availability seamless redundancy (HSR) that uses redundant paths for Ethernet frames allowing for seamless failovers in case of link or node failures.

Similarly, parallel redundancy protocol (PRP) is another standard where the transmitting mode sends duplicate frames over two independent channels and the receiving node discards any duplicates it receives, ensuring data integrity and protecting against packet loss.

2. Built-in cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is top-of-mind for industries. Visibility into connected devices, their interactions and vulnerabilities is the first step in securing industrial assets. This visibility can be gained from deep packet inspection (DPI) of network traffic. Traditionally, industrial networks have duplicated traffic from their switches to feed into offboard DPI servers. However, this leads to extra cost and complexity in the network. Today’s Ethernet provides a much simpler solution. Industrial switches can themselves perform DPI and obtain visibility and security insights as noted in Figure 1.

Visibility informs the second step in securing operations. Once you know the identity of assets and traffic patterns, you can define access policies that selectively allow or deny traffic between assets, control systems and external entities. These policies segment the network and place limits around groups of assets creating zones and conduits as required by the ISA/IEC62443 security standards, restricting unimpeded flow of potential malware through the operations.

While zones and conduits can be carved through extensive placement of firewalls, it is much simpler for the industrial Ethernet switches themselves to enforce access policies, thereby avoiding the extra cost and complexity.

3. Zero-trust network access

Industrial Ethernet can enable zero-trust network access (ZTNA). The ability to access industrial assets remotely, especially ones that may be geographically distributed, can be invaluable. Using it, operations staff, vendors or contractors can log in to those assets without costly site visits to monitor, debug, configure or otherwise manage them.

4. Power over Ethernet

Industrial Ethernet provides PoE and helps make operations more sustainable. Originally gaining popularity in enterprise IT settings, power over Ethernet (PoE) is becoming increasingly common in industrial settings. However, there are significant differences between the two environments.

Industrial environments can be harsh, with extreme temperatures, dust and vibrations. Both Industrial Ethernet equipment acting as power sourcing equipment (PSE) and powered devices (PD) must be ruggedized, allow for higher power levels, adhere to stricter safety standards and be more resistant to electrical noise and interference from electromagnetic fields.

5. Enabling Industry 4.0

Industrial Ethernet enables Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 promises to transform operations by integrating advanced technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, cloud computing and robotics into industrial processes. It can help increase productivity and improve product quality through realtime data-driven decisions.

However, all this is possible only when accurate, timely process data is made available to the software applications in the data centers and cloud. Industrial Ethernet, as the conduit for network traffic, can extract relevant data, transform it into the required format, and securely transfer it to these applications.

Industrial Ethernet assists in faster datadriven decision-making. While applications in the data center and the cloud, fed by data from operations, can help derive insights and make operations decisions, there are timesensitive use cases where these decisions need to be made on the spot.

For example, in autonomous vehicles, faster capabilities can enable the real-time processing of data from sensors and cameras to make instant decisions and respond quickly to changes in environment. It can also support various smart city applications such as intelligent traffic management, public safety systems, environmental monitoring, etc.

In industrial settings, processing data locally can help monitor and control machinery and optimize processes. Traditionally, industrial PCs have been deployed to process data. However, edge-computing capabilities within Industrial Ethernet equipment can analyze data more efficiently, saving money, complexity and delays incurred in transit to offboard applications.

Industrial transformation

Industrial Ethernet has proven to be a critical component in driving transformation in various industries. Its ability to provide fast, reliable and secure communication has resulted in increased productivity, improved efficiency and enhanced decision-making processes. Industrial Ethernet has enabled the adoption of advanced technologies such as IIoT and Industry 4.0. This transformative power has led to optimized operations, reduced downtime, and ultimately, significant cost savings for businesses across the globe.