Shared Industrial Ethernet –

Increasing Network Diameter

Contemporary Controls
www.ccontrols.com
What is Shared Industrial Ethernet?

Collision detection is the method used by stations in order to arbitrate

access to the medium. All devices must be able to observe the existence
of a collision and abide by the rules of station arbitration.

A collision domain is that area where faithful detection of a collision by all

devices occurs.

A shared Industrial Ethernet means that all devices - including repeaters,

hubs and network adapters - reside within one collision domain. The
network diameter must be less than the collision domain.

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10 Mbps Ethernet Physical Layers:
Coaxial Cable

10BASE-5
-Original physical layer
-Up to 100 stations in a bus topology
-500 metres maximum segment length
-Uses an AUI port for connection to an external MAU
10BASE-2
-Thinnet introduced in order to reduce cost
-Up to 30 stations in a bus topology
-185 metres maximum segment length
-Uses BNC connectors for network connection

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10 Mbps Ethernet Physical Layers:
Twisted-Pair

10BASE-T
-Introduced to simplify wiring and reduce cost
-Requires the use of star topology
-Number of stations per segment cannot exceed 2
-100 metres maximum segment length
-Uses RJ-45 connectors for network connection
-A hub becomes an integral component of the network

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10 Mbps Ethernet Physical Layers:
Optical Fibre

The following interfaces are all part of the 10BASE-F standard.

10BASE-FL
-Fibre link replaces the FOIRL standard
-Up to 2000 metres in a star topology
-Requires a duplex 62.5/125 micron connection
10BASE-FB
-Backbone standard that is not very popular
10BASE-FP
-Passive hub standard that is not very popular

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IEEE 802.3 Repeater Requirements

Repeater Set consists of a repeater with two or more attached MAUs. Hubs
are considered multi-port repeaters. Repeaters are used to expand the
network diameter of shared Ethernet networks.

Repeater requirements
-Restore the amplitude of the signal
-Restore the symmetry of the signal
-Retime the signal
-Rebuild the preamble
-Enforce collisions on all segments
-Extend fragments
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Network Diameter Limitation

Repeaters can be connected in series (cascaded) in order to increase

network diameter, but there are restrictions.

-The maximum network diameter cannot exceed a single collision

domain, otherwise unreliable operation will result

-The collision domain is determined by the round-trip time of a signal

propagating between the two furthest nodes

-This time cannot exceed 575 bits, or 57.5 microseconds

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Repeater Limit
Approach 1: 5 – 4 – 3 Rule

This is the “cook-book” approach. Easy to use but not very accurate. A
network can consist of up to five segments, four repeaters as long as no
more than three segments are mixing segments.

-A mixing segment is a bus segment

-Does not address the three, two or one repeater configuration
-Does not address maximum segment lengths, which vary depending
upon the number of repeaters
-Does not address the ‘all coaxial’ or ‘all fibre’ configuration

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Repeater Limit
Approach 2: Detailed Analysis

The IEEE 802.3 Standard devotes a complete chapter to calculating the

worst-case round trip delay and the maximum inter-frame gap shrinkage.
Tables have been provided for the various physical layers in order to
make these calculations.

-The Standard recommends that the total round-trip delay does not
exceed 572 bit-times
-The Standard recommends that the inter-frame gap shrinkage not
exceed 49 bit-times
-Most accurate method for calculating the maximum number of
repeaters

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Want to learn more about
Industrial Ethernet?

We have written several articles on the subject of Industrial Ethernet, and

copies of these can be found on our web site. Point your browser to:

http://www.ccontrols.com/extension.htm

Thank you!

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April 2001
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