Florian Essler has been one of the first technology experts at the EtherCAT Technology Group and meanwhile leads the technical team at the headquarters. He oversees the worldwide conformance testing program and significantly contributed to the profile standardization for the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Now he supports the TSN adaptation into industrial automation systems.

EtherCAT is a leading industry standard in the area of fieldbus technology, whereas the IEEE 802.1Q bridging standard combined with Ethernet is the preferred office network. The emerging Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards provide real-time capabilities in IEEE 802 networks. Using EtherCAT at the machine level and interconnecting machines with switch based Ethernet creates a state-of-the-art industrial Ethernet network architecture. However, some complex machines will still require an enhanced communication infrastructure inside. Integrating EtherCAT segments into a TSN network can combine the benefits of both technologies without requiring any changes to the EtherCAT slavedevices. The adaptation simply requires an upgrade at the master side and a moderate extension in terms of the switches that connect EtherCAT segments.

How the respective specifications combine both technologies, EtherCAT and TSN, and what it means for device builders and end user’s benefits, is discussed by this talk.