I introduced Advantech’s white paper, Industrial Bus and Network Standards, in a previous blog post and highlighted the overriding advantages that standardization brings to industry as:
- Maximized Economies of Scale
- Constructive Specialization
- Facilitation of Strategic Alliances
When it comes to enterprise and home computing technology, there is no better example of each of these advantages than that offered by the all-pervading Ethernet standard.
Although history primarily credits Robert Metcalfe with its genesis, Xerox’s 1975 patent application lists Butler Lampson, David Boggs and Chuck Thacker, along with Metcalfe, as co-inventors. After leaving Xerox to form 3Com, Metcalfe persuaded it, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and Intel to for a strategic alliance in promotion of the Ethernet standard. Originally designated “DIX” for DEC, Intel and Xerox, the standard provided for a 10-Mbit/second rate with 48-bit addresses and 16-bit global field, as defined in The Ethernet, a Local Area Network; Data Link Layer and Physical Layer Specifications, published in September of 1980.
Ethernet offered the cost advantage of utilization of the twisted-pair cabling that was already in wide production, bootstrapping established economies of scale. Introduction in 1982 of an Ethernet card for the IBM PC cinched the standard’s dominance. The Ethernet standard has grown from there to encompass home, office, industrial and telecom networking, with annual sales estimated at more than $16 billion, and rising rapidly still. Ethernet is “the de facto networking technology for the 21st century.”
As Advantech’s white paper notes, refinement of the standard offers overwhelming advantages, including:
- Transparency to data traversing the network.
- Accommodation of high data volumes at very high data-transfer rates.
- All modern controllers and PCs are equipped with Ethernet ports.
- “Plug-and-play” simplicity is built in.
- It’s likely to remain the dominant standard for another decade.
- Specialized formats are available; for example, EtherCat and Powerlink for control of robotic systems and high-speed machine applications.
- IPv6-aided proliferation of IP addresses allows direct Ethernet connection to “every device in the world several times over.”
Add to these advantages the fact that management firmware and security components are now standard features of Ethernet switches and routers, and it is easy to see why the Ethernet standard is projected to continue its unparalleled dominance for years to come.
If you have any networking questions are needs for your business, feel free to contact me at jeremy.miller@L-Tron.com and I’ll be happy to help you.