Introduction
The CU2508-0022 real-time Ethernet port multiplier allows connection of up to eight Ethernet networks. The CU2508-0022 is connected to the control industrial PC via a gigabit uplink. The PC offers high-performance data transfer to the multiplier, which allocates the data to the relevant 100BASE-TX port based on an analysis of a telegram prefix, and sends the data under timer control with µs precision. Frames received are also assigned a prefix, including timestamp, and transmitted to the PC via the gigabit line. From the point of view of the user, eight 100-Mbit ports with full real-time properties are available that can be used individually.
Similar to the CU2508 port multiplier in IP20, the CU2508-0022 8-port multiplier provides the ability to connect multiple Ethernet ports outside the PC via a 1 Gbit/s connection in the IP67 world. TwinCAT 3 supports communication via Ethernet (TCP/IP), EtherCAT, EAP (EtherCAT Automation Protocol) and real-time Ethernet – this eliminates the need for additional network ports on the PC.
In particular, the CU2508-0022 enables extensive EtherCAT installations. For extremely high data throughput requirements, these can be extended to up to eight segments, thus increasing performance several times over. The distributed clocks of the EtherCAT segments are synchronized. EtherCAT cable redundancy with simultaneous distributed clock use can also be implemented with two ports of the CU2508-0022.
Multiple CU2508-0022 units can be operated simultaneously on one controller if even higher data throughput is required.