Technical and economic miracles only seem like miracles because we probably weren’t paying attention to all the work going on behind the scenes.
For instance, Ethernet-Advanced Physical Layer (APL) has been progressively developing for close to a decade, but devices that let it extend Ethernet into hazardous areas have only been available for a couple of years. Now, this physical layer’s 10 Mbps speed and 200 meter networking is enabling much faster and more detailed communications, analytics, configuration, data storage and other tasks.
“Now that device manufacturers and some end users are setting up, trying out, and starting to get their hands dirty with Ethernet-APL field switches and other devices, they’re getting to experience the benefits of its greater bandwidth, cable length, and the richness of Ethernet in general,” says Michael Bowne, executive director of PI North America (us.profinet.com). “They’re also discovering that device configuration is orders of magnitude easier with APL, and can go from hours to minutes.”
