Ethernet Powerlink standard promises `true interoperability`

The Ethernet Powerlink Standardisation Group has published a draft standard for Ethernet Powerlink (EPL), which it describes as "the only market-established, real-time Ethernet protocol with microsecond accuracy".

The Group - whose members include ABB Robotics, Baldor, B&R, Hirschmann, Kuka Controls, Lenze, Pepperl+Fuchs and Tetra Pak - says that the standard will provide ready-developed stacks with uniform communication and device profiles. "Only with these uniform and pre-defined profiles is true interoperability at all levels, from the controller to I/O, possible," the Group states.

EPL is software-based and can be implemented on any standard Ethernet hardware and processor chips. It can be updated at any time without interfering with an application.

According to the EPL Group, there are already more than 100,000 EPL nodes in use in production machines around the world.