ISA Publishes Industrial Ethernet Guide

ISA recently announced the publication of Industrial Ethernet for the Plant Floor: A Planning and Installation Guide by Robert Lounsbury.

This book provides guidance on how to select components, layout, install, test, certify, and troubleshoot a network system. It discusses designing industrial physical layers, network architectures, and components. It also educates the reader on the basics of noise, how to mitigate and abate it through installation techniques and the selection of components that would provide a level of performance needed in a hostile industrial environment.

According to Lounsbury, Ethernet emerged primarily to provide office connectivity to desktop computers and printers. Office environments are relatively benign with respect to electrical noises and applying the same network in an industrial environment presents the designer and installer with challenges in obtaining an equal or better performance.