EtherCAT

Osnove

DKR Tuzla
 EtherCAT

EtherCAT is based on the principle of Ethernet on the fly

processing!!!!

Driving factor for its incredibly fast cycle times for

industrial automation applications.
EtherCAT

In a typical ethernet
network, ethernet frames
(data packets) are sent to
each device, where the
device then reads the
data, and sends back a
response to the master.
This process is repeated
for each device in the
network until all devices
are updated.
EtherCAT

The total network cycle RANDOMNESS in

time would be the sum of
all the response times and
is not deterministic.
Sometimes multiple device
messages can interrupt
one another requiring a
master to arbitrate and
organize according to
priority, which also adds
delay to the cycle time.
development of the future
state of the system!!!!
DETERMINISTIC model
will always produce same
outout from a given
starting condition!
EtherCAT
In an EtherCAT network, a
frame is sent from the master
and when the first slave
device receives the frame, it
instantaneously extracts the
data with its address and
writes any response data.
This means the frame(s)
effectively passes through all
the slaves with negligible time
delay and then comes back to
the master
EtherCAT

In addition to on the fly

Ethernet processing,
EtherCAT also optimizes
bandwidth by allowing
outgoing and incoming
data for multiple devices to
be combined into single
ethernet frames, rather
that requiring a frame for
each device on the
network.
EtherCAT

For networks with many drives, I/Os, and other

devices, the transmission overhead can be significantly
reduced with this approach.

This efficient network design of EtherCAT makes it

ideal for high bandwidth applications like multi-axis
servo machine control. Sampling and updating 64
drives and many I/Os devices can be done in less than
250 microseconds!