What is EtherCAT? from AutomationDirect

[@kellymoses8566]

EtherCAT seems pointless now that modern ethernet switches have 4ns port-to-port latency. A switch connectes devices with only one hop instead of up to hundreds for EtherCAT.

[@automationdirect]

EtherCAT shines when you have a lot of devices in a single network and can't afford an expensive network architect for design and upkeep of a complex network. While the port-to-port latency may be timed at 4ns currently, none of the switchgear or easy to setup TCP based systems currently available allow anything close to that level of packet traffic speed. With EtherCAT for motion and remote I/O, it is nearly plug and play with extremely fast response times. This may not be the case in the future, but there are still significant advantages for EtherCAT in specific applications.

[@automationdirect]

Each "hop" in an EtherCAT network is also a lot less processing so you can have more hops with a faster response than a traditional TCP based network.