AREAS FOR REDUNDANCY IN ETHERNET/IP™ SYSTEMS WITH FOCUS ON ETHERNET NETWORKS
Dominic Iadonisi · 2007
The need for redundancy for EtherNet/IP is centered on the concept of maximum up time. If you have a redundant system, it can take hits to operations and still maintain full functionality. Redundancy should not come at the price of extreme costliness and a poor return on investment. Redundancy in EtherNet/IP networks cover various levels: Physical, Data Link and Network (IP). Physical refers to the actual hardware and cabling, Data Link refers to the data interconnections at Layer 2 of the OSI model. Network refers to Layer 3 (IP) of the OSI model and the Routing Communication protocols that provide redundancy at the IP layer. Redundancy within EtherNet/IP also comes at a price. The more redundancy built into a system the higher the cost of the system. So it becomes a balance of amount of redundancy, maintainability and cost. Helping the customer determine what is needed and providing the tools to make educated choices is key. This paper explores the different aspects of redundancy in respect to EtherNet/IP based systems and helps the end customer determine the level of redundancy necessary to maintain their required level of operation for profitability.