The main advantage of the EtherCAT control protocol is that it uses Ethernet technology for automation applications that require short data update times (low latency) with extremely low communication jitter for synchronization purposes.
2-meter CAT6 FTP cable
Low latency
In control systems, it is essential to reduce latency to an absolute minimum. When an EtherCAT request is issued, each selected channel sends a sample to the EtherCAT bus.
Synchronization
Every sample available on the EtherCAT bus is fully synchronized with the EtherCAT bus cycle. Advanced asynchronous resamplers bridge the gap between SCADAS’s internal sampling rate and EtherCAT’s data requirements. The normal data acquisition process runs independently of EtherCAT’s real-time sampling process.