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While Ethernet technology continues to be a key factor for many companies in the industrial sector, growth in this area has been slowing down recently.
Figures from IHS Markit highlighted by Automation World, for instance, show growth in the industrial Ethernet market dropped from around ten per cent in 2015 to just over four per cent last year.
External factors are said to be one major cause of this. In its Industrial Ethernet Infrastructure Components Annual Service forecast, IHS Markit highlighted two key reasons for this. One was the overall lull in growth in the sector as a result of the falling oil price between 2013 and 2014, while continuing uncertainty in the global economy - driven by Brexit, the new government in the US and instability of the euro - will also act as a constraint to investment, leading to a knock-on impact for the Ethernet market.
However, a lack of adequate connectivity within companies may also be playing a role in this. A survey by Automation World found that 65 per cent of respondents said the reason some devices were not connected via Ethernet was because they are not outfitted with these capabilities.
What's more, 30 per cent of respondents said they had no current plans to connect fieldbus devices to Ethernet, despite the growing prevalence of coupler technologies that can be used to adapt fieldbus communications for use with Ethernet.
However, Automation World noted that the current slowdown in demand for industrial Ethernet devices and components is likely to be short-lived, with growth to pick up through 2017 and beyond.
It quoted John Morse, IHS senior analyst for discrete and process automation, as saying that the future looks bright for this technology.
"Germany's strong manufacturing base and the impetus and publicity behind Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) continue to be stabilising factors. IHS Markit believes that the lull in [industrial Ethernet] component sales is temporary and the revenue growth rates of the past will return," he said.
Improved interoperability in the sector will also help boost business interest in the technology, Automation World stated. It observed there have been several new partnerships in this space, with the most recent being an agreement between CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) and Profibus & Profinet International (PI) to release a new specification to provide interoperability between their industrial Ethernet protocols.
This allows "transparent communication" between devices, enabling networks to more seamlessly share information. CLPA and PI added that their goal is to improve transparency and ease of integration in order to support concepts such as IIoT.
"Many end users source production machinery from across the world, which may result in machines in the same plant communicating via differing protocols," they stated. "This can lead to increased engineering work to achieve integration, as users are combining heterogeneous architectures that may not necessarily communicate as standard. End users of both networks flagged these challenges to both the CLPA and PI."
The first products to support the new specification are expected to come on to the market this year, and these and similar interoperability efforts should further help the development of industrial Ethernet connectivity.
