Ethernet Communication for Smart Manufacturing

For decades, serial communication has been delivering reliable connectivity in many factory applications. Although Ethernet communication is more popular these days, a large variety of legacy equipment still relies on serial communication. As factory managers increasingly realize that OT/IT convergence optimizes operational efficiency, it is field engineers and system integrators, however, who are first in line facing the challenges of integrating older and newer systems. Fortunately, solutions such as serial device servers bridge the gap between your serial devices and modern Ethernet-based systems. However, serial and Ethernet communications remain two distinct methods of data transmission, so there may be concerns over the stability of TCP/IP networks and read/write performance when migrating from a serial to an Ethernet-based network.