Topology

EtherCAT offers free choice of topology and maximum wiring flexibility. The EtherCAT devices can be wired with or without switches, lines or tree topology. EtherCAT supports almost any topology. Addresses are assigned automatically, and an IP address does not have to be set separately.

It is possible to operate up to 65.535 EtherCAT devices, with a maximum distance of 100 m between two devices. EtherCAT devices with optical fibers can reach a cable length of 20.000 m. Twisted-pair Ethernet 100BASE-TX is commonly used as physical layer. The Hot Connect function can be used to subdivide whole bus segments into groups for rapid replacement.