Technology
SPE changing the face of industrial communication SOURCE: PHOENIX CONTACT
The ambitious goal for Single Pair Ethernet is a new, cross-manufacturer communication standard for digital transformation. Together with other communication technologies such as 5G and TSN, SPE also forms the basis for the intelligent networking that will fuel the evolution of smart manufacturing.
Many in industry believe that Single Pair Ethernet is becoming the connector standard for the network infrastructure of digital transformation. communication standard is required in the automobile. Seeking a successor for the CAN bus, it was therefore the automotive industry that identified the TCP/IP-based transmission method and spurred on the first SPE standards. Through the IEEE 802.3 working group, the first SPE standards were published in the relevant task forces as 100BASE-T1 and 1000BASE-T1. Rosenberger Hochfrequenztechnik GmbH &
Co. KG is already producing the connectors for these applications on a series scale. With the cg standard from IEEE 802.3 finally being adopted in 2019, a standard for longer ranges has now been defined for the first time, which will be of interest for many industrial applications. This cleared the way for SPE to enter new fields of application such as factory and building automation. In order to create the first device generations for this purpose, SOURCE: PHOENIX CONTACT
SINGLE PAIR ETHERNET, OR SPE FOR SHORT, is the trend topic when it comes to industrial communication technology. Usually, the focus is on components. But there is so much more to it than that; it is actually the Ethernetbased communication structure of the future. There is currently a lot of discussion about components, cables, and connectors, but which PHYs (physical layers) are available? Which cables can be used? How far is the range and what sort of data can be transmitted? And last but not least, has a standard already emerged among connectors? The driving force behind all of these questions is a fundamental paradigm shift in industrial communication – for the entire infrastructure including devices and sensors for numerous application scenarios.
What is already available?
BroadR-Reach technology, an Ethernet physical layer standard for connectivity applications in the automotive industry, can be considered the starting point for the development of SPE. Modern mid-range vehicles have over 100 sensors – a trend that is on the increase. The number of control devices, sensors, actuators, and items of communication equipment keeps growing from one vehicle generation to the next – as does the amount of cabling. Innovative sensor technology with a uniform 06.202 1
Universal use: new SPE connectors from Phoenix Contact are based on standards IEC 63171-2 (for IP20) and IEC 63171-5 (for IP65/IP67).
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