My customer plant has a network backbone (thick ethernet with fibre optic) for its plant's automation system communication (Sinec H1).

I am thinking of using the existing network (thick ethernet) for multiple PCs networking via TCP/IP. Is that possible?

Can we have more than one protocol (e.g. Sinec H1, ISO, TCP/IP) installed/running on the same network backbone?

Thanks in advance.

 

Obviously none of us can guarantee it will work. For all we know they have some weird RF signal on the cable. However, so long as it's just plain jane thicknet with plain jane hardware connecting to it, I personally have never had any problems running multiple protocols on a single wire. YMMV

You do have to watch out for traffic, since every device is "sharing" the bandwidth. Remember, there's only one wire. In this day and age, a full duplex switch probably makes a lot of sense. I know it's an expensive proposition to pull a bunch of new wires, etc., but how much is the process worth to them. Are you saving $30K to risk $500K or more in lost production?

Michael

 

You are right. Thanks for your comment Michael.