£200,00 project will explore industrial Ethernet

UK researchers are about to embark on a £200,000 project to resolve some of the technical issues surrounding the industrial implementation of Ethernet. As part of the two-year project, the researchers, from the University of Warwick`s manufacturing group, will set up an Ethernet/IP test bed and create a Web site to disseminate technical information.

Backers already signed up include Rockwell Automation and Tellima Technology, and the researchers are talking to other potential partners including British Federal, HM Computing and Contemporary Controls.

The researchers hope to resolve issues of speed and reliability and investigate the real-time performance of Ethernet switches and hubs on the factory floor. They will also create diagnostic techniques for Ethernet/IP and establish methods for integrating shop-floor networks with corporation-level networks. Another objective is to perform cost-benefit analyses of Ethernet/IP implementations.