Lenze EtherCAT control technology - Manual (Page 17)

DMS 3.1 EN 01/2011 TD17
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17
Control technology | EtherCAT communication manual
The Lenze control system with EtherCAT
Brief description of EtherCAT
4.1.2 Structure of the EtherCAT bus system
Basic structure
Physical structure
 An EtherCAT master can communicate with one or more nodes ("slaves").
 Internally, the EtherCAT bus has a ring topology. Since Ethernet cables are provided
with a going and a return conductor within one cable, for the installer the topology
seems to be a line. The last slave closes the ring.
 Switches, hubs or other infrastructure components known from the Ethernet standard
must not be used because they impair the real-time performance.