EtherCAT G Ultimate I/O performance for high-performance machines

EtherCAT reaches the next performance level with the EtherCAT G technology extension through its capability to superimpose itself on Gigabit Ethernet for particularly data-intensive applications.

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Compatibility with the globally established standard EtherCAT, which uses 100 Mbit/s, and the same familiar ease of use are both guaranteed.

EtherCAT G uses the 1 Gbit/s data transmission rate of standard Ethernet; while the EtherCAT G10 variant, recently presented as a proof-of-concept technology study, even achieves data rates of up to 10 Gbit/s. The considerable increase in data rates compared with standard 100 Mbit/s EtherCAT significantly increases the possible data throughput. In conjunction with the newly introduced branch concept, EtherCAT G (1 Gbit/s) enables a 2 to 7-fold increase in performance in relation to communication times and up to 10 times the bandwidth, depending on the application. 100 times the bandwidth is even possible with EtherCAT G10.

EtherCAT G as a fully compatible technology extension

With EtherCAT G, the proven success principle of EtherCAT can be used to leverage the high Ethernet data transmission rates that are technologically available today – without any changes to the EtherCAT protocol itself. The telegram sent by the EtherCAT master thus continues to pass through all network devices. Every EtherCAT slave reads the output data addressed to it on the fly and places its input data in the forwarded frame, but now with data rates of 1 to 10 Gbit/s. As before, the last device in a segment (or branch) will detect an unused port and send the telegram back to the master. The full-duplex property of the Ethernet physics is utilised for this capability.