The term Internet of Things (IoT) is often associated with embedded machine-to-machine (M2M) network communication between "smart objects" in commercial, industrial, and government environments.

With its real-time visibility and control capabilities that provide connected objects, IoT networks are destined to bring unparalleled transparency and efficiency to our lives. Industry is an important application area of the Internet of Things. The intelligent industrial model based on the Internet of Things is the new upsurge of the current industrial development, so the industrial Internet of Things network formed has also been continuously developed and improved.

At present, although proprietary communication protocols have long dominated the network communication of industrial IoT applications, the increasing networking capabilities and the high bandwidth requirements of IoT networks have made Ethernet the least resistance to replacing traditional communication protocols. Upgrade path. Ethernet and TCP/IP communication technologies have achieved great success in the IT industry and have become the preferred network communication technology in IT industry applications.

In recent years, since the standardization of international fieldbus technology has not reached the desired results, Ethernet and TCP/IP technologies have gradually been applied in industrial automation and developed into a technological trend.

The application of Ethernet in industrial automation should be divided into two aspects, or two levels of problems. First, the combination of factory automation technology and IT technology, and the combination of Internet technology, will become the prototype of e-commerce technology and network manufacturing technology in the future. Most experts give a positive evaluation to this development trend of automation technology.

On the other hand, can Ethernet be widely used in the bottom layer of industrial process control, that is, the equipment layer or the field layer? Can it become or even replace the existing fieldbus technology to become a unified industrial IoT network standard? These issues are indeed hot topics of debate among experts in the automation industry.

In order to fully meet these needs, the next-generation Ethernet technology must evolve and provide native support for the following three key functions:

- Reliability and deterministic performance
- Precise timing and synchronization
- Security We will focus on why these functions are essential and how they will help Ethernet to deal with some of the major challenges that future industrial IoT networks will face.

A risk game: Industrial Internet of Things requires reliability and deterministic performance. In the Industrial Internet of Things, autonomous, peer-to-peer distributed control is far higher than the requirements of any consumer Internet of Things. Data collection, recording and analysis occur continuously and in real time. With systems that can process tasks faster than humans, operating reliably and safely without human intervention is essential.

For example, material handling equipment in a warehouse can sense packages moving along a conveyor belt. It identifies materials through RFID tags or barcodes, and guides the materials to the next conveyor belt based on this information. Communication failures may potentially lead to increased costs or threats to personnel safety.

Now imagine a network that monitors the structural health of a nuclear power plant.

Error detection and reliability bear a higher price, because communication failures in such an environment can cause catastrophic consequences, including substation collapse, environmental pollution and death.

In these environments, industrial IoT networks have strict performance and reliability requirements, including:

(1) Fault tolerance (2) Security (3) Low latency (4) Ubiquitous coverage of low power consumption

As IoT networks accelerate their transition to Ethernet, they can use the MetroEthernet Forum (MetroEthernetForum, MEF) ) Defined, standardized, carrier-grade service definition to determine "carrier-grade Ethernet." These standards are particularly important because the IoT network cannot afford to compromise on network performance, stability, or service reliability. We will see that as more IoT networks adopt Ethernet, they will seek to deploy cost-effective, carrier-grade equipment to meet these real-time needs and high-performance networking services.

Timing and synchronization are critical to industrial IoT networks. The IEEE1588v2 Precision Time Protocol (1588 or PTP) will play a pivotal role in various next-generation networks including wired IoT networks. The 1588, which originated in the field of industrial automation, can provide very accurate timing, and can provide accurate time-of-day (ToD) information for real-time applications, as well as time-stamp input, scheduling and synchronization output.

This capability will minimize the performance limitations of traditional control networks, such as "response time jitter", etc., and support real-time communication and interaction between disparate and dispersed intelligent objects that jointly complete time-sensitive tasks, including automatic flow Management system and self-driving car to smart grid management. Take automatic traffic management as an example. 1588 can provide visibility and dynamic control for traffic management systems interconnected with roads and railways, allowing operators to flexibly adjust schedules based on passenger flow.

Similarly, in the field of autonomous vehicles, 1588 can provide road real-time traffic and congestion data, communicate with autonomous vehicles to achieve smooth traffic flow.

Looking at the smart grid, utility companies can use 1588 to manage decentralized energy supply sources, such as wind turbines or photovoltaic systems. Smart grids with 1588 capabilities also allow utility companies to access real-time load data, and can help them stabilize their grids against sudden demand peaks by quickly controlling existing power restriction systems in commercial, industrial and residential environments.

Looking ahead, we expect that chip solutions with 1588 timing support will be more widely adopted to meet these stringent accuracy requirements, as well as the specific needs of the IoT environment, such as smaller size and low power consumption, and support for expansion Temperature range.

Security is critical to industrial IoT networks. The awareness of information security and protection of business and industrial infrastructure from cyber attacks is increasing. Since the previous closed IoT networks and smart devices are now connected to the outside world, it is imperative to prepare a solid and reliable security strategy. Although there are many network and data security models, the focus of our attention in this field is still the encryption function, because it is one of the most effective means to ensure a secure network connection.

A network-based security protocol commonly used today is IPsec. IPsec runs at layer 3 (L3) of the Internet protocol hierarchy, and it works well in routing networks. However, because it usually requires an embedded or dedicated independent encryption engine, it is costly to implement. Another alternative to working at the second layer (L2) of the Internet protocol hierarchy is the IEEE802.1AE "MACSec" security standard, which is used in conjunction with the "KeySec" authentication key agreement protocol l802.1af.

Although it is not widely adopted today, it provides a simpler, more efficient, and scalable option because it can be easily and cost-effectively implemented at the L2 layer. Like other Ethernet-based networks, strong encryption to protect its multiple access points will be critical to the Internet of Things. Since any device with an IP address is theoretically vulnerable, the more "things" connected, the greater the number of access points to hackers.

As the Internet of Things and our interconnected world expand further, anything from factory networks to single household appliances will be included in the estimated 75 billion Internet of Things connections, making scalable, cost-effective security technologies More critical. Fortunately, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has created a set of best practices that have become the de facto standard for protecting systems from cyber attacks.

We are expected to see that by following these principles, such as the AES encryption described in NIST's FIPS197, it will become the basic minimum requirement for Ethernet-based IoT networks. And taking into account the synchronization requirements of the Internet of Things, we can further expect that the "secure 1588" series of technologies—that is, encryption methods that will not affect the time of the network—will be crucial to the long-term success of these networks. The advantage of industrial Ethernet lies in the fact that Ethernet has unique advantages in industrial applications compared to existing communication protocols.

- Ethernet is a fully open and fully digital network, and devices from different manufacturers can be easily interconnected according to the network protocol.

- Ethernet can realize seamless connection between industrial control network and enterprise information network, forming a fully open network with enterprise-level management and control integration.

- The cost of software and hardware is low. Because Ethernet technology has been very mature, the software and hardware supporting Ethernet are highly valued and widely supported by manufacturers. There are a variety of software development environments and hardware devices for users to choose from.

- The communication rate is high. With the expansion of the scale and complexity of enterprise information systems, the demand for information is also increasing, and sometimes even the transmission of audio and video data is required. The current communication rate of Ethernet is 10M , 100M Fast Ethernet began to be widely used, Gigabit Ethernet technology is gradually mature, 10G Ethernet is also being studied, its rate is much faster than the current field bus.

- The potential for sustainable development is great, in this era of rapidly changing information. The survival and development of an enterprise will depend to a large extent on a fast and effective communication management network. The development of information technology and communication technology will be faster and more mature, thus ensuring the continuous and continuous development of Ethernet technology.

The development prospect of industrial Ethernet Ethernet is growing rapidly in the field of industrial automation with the maturity of technology, the application of switching technology, and the development of high-speed Ethernet. Almost all fieldbus systems can eventually be connected to Ethernet. With the development of integrated circuits, the conditions for high-end microprocessors as the core of I/O processors and controllers are gradually mature, and the real-time embedded operating system running on the controller makes it easy for the controller to implement the TCP/IP protocol and Ethernet The network is more accessible to the site. Industrial Ethernet has become the main direction of control system network development and has great development potential.

Process control industry and automation industry, from embedded systems to fieldbus control systems, have realized the importance of Ethernet and TCP/IP. As the most widely used network protocol in the world, Ethernet and TCP/IP will become the process The main transmission technology of the level and control level. The standard Ethernet interface with TCP/IP protocol is now used in smart devices and I/O modules. It can be directly and seamlessly connected with the factory information management system without any special equipment.

Therefore, it can be said that the use of industrial Ethernet in the industrial communication network will build a comprehensive automation network platform from the underlying field equipment to the advanced and optimized control layer and the enterprise management decision-making layer, thereby eliminating various automation islands within the enterprise.

As the first choice for future industrial networks in the 21st century, Ethernet will become a standard high-speed industrial network at the control and field device level, with broad application and development prospects. The direct application of industrial Ethernet technology to the communication between industrial field devices has become a general trend. Conclusion There is no doubt that Ethernet will only be further integrated into the industrial field with the rapid increase in Internet technology and industrial demand, and promote the continuous improvement and development of the industrial Internet of Things.

But this is also a long way to go, and at the same time full of opportunities and challenges. In any case, we will see that in the process of the evolution of Ethernet to become the foundation of the industrial Internet of Things, we only need to grasp the certainty, synchronization and security. These three requirements of sex, in the near future, we will see an "Industrial Revolution Storm" that everyone has hoped for.