The Ethernet-APL Engineering Process

A brief look at the Ethernet-APL Engineering Guideline

Abstract

The vision “Industrial Ethernet down to the sensors and actors” became reality. At the Achema fair in June 2021 Ethernet-APL got introduced to the market. Base of this technology is a 2-wire Ethernet that conveys information as well as energy to the sensors and actors of the automation system. Ethernet-APL is based on 2 wire Ethernet standard IEEE 802.3cg [1] running at 10 Mbit/s. An additional specification, the Ethernet-APL Port Profile Specification [2], defines additional parameters for the use of the technology in the process industry, especially in areas with potentially explosive atmosphere. As a next step, potential users need to become familiar with the engineering process of Ethernet-APL networks. For this purpose, the APL project provides the Ethernet-APL Engineering Guideline [3] that covers the main areas of planning, installation and acceptance test. This article will give an overview on the Ethernet-APL engineering process and show the relevant planning steps.