CC-Link Ups the Ante in High-speed Industrial Ethernet
Featuring transfer rates of 1 Gigabit/second, the new device-level CC-Link IE Field Network is billed as 10 times faster than competitive Industrial Ethernet networks.
There’s a new low-cost, high-speed entry in the Industrial Ethernet (IE) arena. The CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) announced on Jan. 19 the North American release of CC-Link IE Field Network—the field device-level version of the Japanese-born CC-Link open Industrial Ethernet network that runs at a blazing 1 gigabit/second.
“We call it ultrahigh speed because it’s 10 times faster than any of the other Industrial Ethernet networks out there,” says Chuck Lukasik, director, CLPA-Americas (www.cclinkamerica.org), based in Vernon Hills, Ill. During a presentation at Automation World offices, Lukasik and CLPA-Americas Networking Specialist John Wozniak showed slides comparing the new CC-Link IE Field Network to prominent competitive IE networks—including EtherNet/IP, Profinet and EtherCat—all of which specify a maximum speed of 100 Megabits/second, according to Lukasik. The new CC-Link field-level network is based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ IEEE 802.3 standard and uses commercially available Cat5E cable and RJ45 connectors.
Low-cost too
In addition to its speed, another competitive advantage of the CC-Link IE Field Network, says Lukasik, is its ability to deliver deterministic control communications without the need for Ethernet switches. This can significantly reduce hardware and engineering costs compared to other IE networks that typically require these switches, he contends.
CC-Link IE Field Network will require a CC-Link application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in each device attached to the network, or alternatively, a special adapter box. But these hardware costs will amount to significantly less than the cost of Ethernet switches required with other networks, according to Lukasik and Wozniak. Pricing for an eight-port managed Ethernet switch on competitive networks can range from $700 to $2,900 each, they say.
Originally developed by Japan’s Mitsubishi, CC-Link (for Control and Communication Link) was donated to the CLPA and was introduced in 2000 as an open fieldbus network. The CC-Link IE Control Network, which enables 1-gigabit Industrial Ethernet communications between controllers over fiber optic cable, was introduced in 2007.
Not surprisingly, CC-Link enjoys its deepest penetration in Japan and Asia, including China. A total of about 7 million CC-Link nodes are installed, only about 5 percent of which are in North America, Lukasik says. There currently are more than 1,200 CLPA members, with 60 percent of that total from outside Japan.
Product plans
With the introduction of CC-Link IE Field Network, Lukasik and Wozniak will now work with third-party suppliers in North America to make their products CC-Link IE Field Network-ready...
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