Emerging data transfer technologies for factory communication

The paper deals with the replacement of prevailing legacy data communication networks for factory automation by new technologies. The special requirements for data transmission in the area of automation do not allow simple adoption of standard solutions developed for home or office environments. The problems of providing an application interface that frees the user from dealing with network specific parameters are highlighted. Furthermore different data transfer technologies, like ATM and Gigabit Ethernet are introduced and their suitability for the factory communication environment is discussed.