EtherCat is an Ethernet-based industrial fieldbus optimized for motion applications.
It seems to be gaining some traction lately. Beckhoff is the
“champion” of this network, and it recently released two new modules
for fiber-optic cabling — the EK1501 EtherCat Coupler and EK1521
junction terminal.
Fiber optic cabling allows long distance connection
up to 2 km (1.24 miles).
The EtherCat I/O Terminal system supports all common wiring topology
methodologies: line, ring, tree and star. Using standard Ethernet
cabling (100BASE-TX), the maximum distance between two EtherCat I/O
stations is 100 m (328 feet).
