High growth predicted for Industrial Ethernet

20% annual growth in adoption of Industrial Ethernet, for at least the next five years, is being predicted by automation analyst IMS Research. If correct, that’s many times the growth of the automation industry in general and reflects an increase in networking generally and a general shift to Ethernet-based protocols, as users seek universal networking technologies. IMS’ latest research, which covers Europe and North America, estimates that 318,800 Industrial Ethernet infrastructure components were shipped in Europe in 2003, and forecasts that to more than double by 2008. Among additional predictions made is the unsurprising demise of hubs in favour of switches. Industrial Ethernet enabled devices, such as PLCs and HMIs (human-machine interfaces), are expected to experience similar growth to that of the infrastructure components. Senior analyst John Morse comments: “Any manufacturer that wants to be a part of the Industrial Ethernet explosion must be able to offer connectivity to the traditional Ethernet TCP/IP protocol… Producers should think carefully about Profinet. Connectivity to other Ethernet-based technologies is a bonus at this time.”