Industrial Ethernet has become the most popular standard—a necessity, once might argue—for data and voice communication in rugged environments. Highway tunnels, railways, mine shafts, oil rigs, utility services (gas, water, electric), are a few operations where Ethernet provides flow meter data, emergency phones, signaling, industrial controls, and so on. Among the challenges in such arenas, is the 300 foot (1 meter) distance limitation of standard Ethernet.
This is not so much about the factory floor, although industrial Ethernet is certainly needed in that environment. What we want to talk about here is the all the “other” places. Optimized traffic signals based on monitoring automotive traffic and timing controls is one example that comes to mind.
