Test and on-line monitoring of real-time Ethernet with mixed pysical layer for Industry 4.0

In Industry 4.0 nodes are becoming interconnected and part of the growing Industrial Internet of Things. The use of a reduced physical layer and emerging real-time Ethernet standards, enables such nodes to be implemented cost-efficiently. Technologies and standards, which focus on cost-efficient Ethernet technologies for the use in vehicles, are quite promising for industrial applications. The integration of such new technologies and nodes in existing installations will lead to mixed systems consisting of conventional Industrial Ethernet equipment and new technologies. For such a migration scenario we present first results and a test system to validate physical layers and transceivers with respect to timing and synchronizing. Live-measurement methods are given for a dedicated real-time Ethernet system that provides detailed information about timing. Within this scope we show that mixed physical layers can be introduced in real-time Ethernet networks without deteriorating timing in real time application.