ARCNET Tutorial1 w w w. c c o n t r o l s. c o m ®ARCNET —Embedded Network, Industrial LAN or Fieldbus? ARCNET was originally classified as a local area network or LAN. A LAN is defined as a group of nodes that communicate to one another over a geographically-limited area usually within one building or within a campus of buildings. That was the intent of ARCNET when it was originally introduced as an office automation LAN by Datapoint Corporation in the late 1970s. Datapoint envisioned a network with distributed computing power operating as one larger computer. This system was referred to as ARC (attached resource computer) and the network, that connected these resources, was called ARCNET. ARCNET’s use as an office automation network has diminished; however, ARCNET continues to find success in the industrial automation industry because its performance characteristics are well suited for control. ARCNET has proven itself to be very robust. ARCNET also is fast, provides deterministic performance and can span long distances making it a suitable fieldbus technology. The term fieldbus is used in the industrial automation industry to signify a network consisting of computers, controllers and devices mounted in the “field”. ARCNET is an ideal fieldbus. Unlike office automation networks, a fieldbus must deliver messages in a time predictable fashion. ARCNET’s token-passing protocol provides this timeliness. Fieldbus messages are generally short. ARCNET ...
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