Improvements on Ethernet LAN Network Infrastructure for Industrial Automation: a Case Study

It is possible to supply the necessary network infrastructure of industrial plants with Ethernet technology which is strong, scalable, intelligent and safe, at costs that are compatible with the application. Due to the level of criticalness that involves this kind of environment, it is natural that a traditional approach prevails to define network type and architecture, rather than use the latest advances on Ethernet solutions. This paper presents the results of performance improvement on a Local Area Network (LAN) infrastructure for process automation in petroleum industry. An Ethernet infrastructure was implemented for the support of process control replacing a previous architecture. The new network is fault-tolerant and supports availability requirements.