Beckhoff EtherCAT - Can we relay Ethercat frames through a custom Ethernet swicth?

Question

I am planning to develop a custom highly efficient ethernet switch that can connect my Ethercat slave to a master. The switch does not do anything on the Ethercat frames and just forwards them to the master. The switch can relay the frames with latencies in the range of 100 nanoseconds. Do I need to use any specific Ethercat device interfaces for my device or can I just use normal Ethernet interfaces for this implementation? This will just act as a connector between slaves and the master. No processing will be done on the frames. Can this be done, without using any specific Ethercat interfaces and just normal Ethernet switching logic?

Accepted Answer

It is possible to relay EtherCAT frames through a custom Ethernet switch, but there are some important considerations to keep in mind.

First, you need to make sure that the custom Ethernet switch is EtherCAT-compatible. The switch must be capable of handling EtherCAT frames and maintaining the necessary timing and synchronization required for real-time operation.

Second, the switch must be properly configured to support EtherCAT traffic, which might involve configuring VLANs, setting up Quality of Service (QoS) policies to prioritize EtherCAT traffic, and enabling any necessary port mirroring or monitoring features.

In summary, to connect EtherCAT devices to a regular Ethernet switch, you will need to use EtherCAT Slave devices or EtherCAT Slave Controllers that are designed to interface with Ethernet networks. Additionally, you should select an Ethernet switch that is specifically designed to support EtherCAT traffic to ensure proper operation.

Can we relay Ethercat frames through a custom Ethernet swicth?

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