Page 73 - 2020 Interconnect Innovations eBook

Single-Pair Ethernet Supports Sensor-to-Cloud Communications
Nathan Owens, Product Marketing Manager – Industrial Field Connectivity, and Lyndsey Walling, Product Marketing Manager – Field Device Connectors, Phoenix Contact USA
Ethernet has come a long way since it was first commercially introduced in the 80s. It has evolved over the past 40 years, jumping from 10 megabits per second in 1990 to one gigabit per second in 1999 and then Power over Ethernet in 2003. Today, Ethernet is the most broadly known and used communication protocol for the process and operations management level of industrial networks.
In addition to supporting higher bit rates, Ethernet now has a greater number of nodes and longer link distances. However, current industrial Ethernet protocols have never really gone down from the sensor level all the way up to the cloud — until now. Single-Pair Ethernet is poised to take Ethernet, and all of the technology that relies on Ethernet, to a whole new level.
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» The changing Ethernet landscape. Single-Pair Ethernet will influence industrial network structures in all fields of application, from building automation to factory and process automation and beyond.
What Is Single-Pair Ethernet?
Single-Pair Ethernet (SPE) is a new Ethernet standard that supports the parallel transmission of data and power over a single twisted-pair cable instead of the traditional two or four twisted pairs. It can utilize Power over Data Line (PoDL) to deliver continuous power supply to end devices while also providing seamless communication between a server and the cloud.
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