FAQ

● What is a profinet cable?

The factory floor, where PROFINET is most commonly used, is a rough environment with challenging environmental conditions. In that environment, standard Ethernet cables, like those you find in your office or home, might break or damage easily. For that reason, industrial Ethernet cables are a common choice.

On the wire, Industrial Ethernet is just Ethernet. Yet, Industrial Ethernet is characterized by rugged hardware, and its wiring is protected with shielding and jacketing.

Many vendors offer Industrial Ethernet solutions, and some produce cables specifically for PROFINET, which we call PROFINET cables. They often come with a green jacketing and comply with ruggedized specifications that have been standardized by PROFIBUS and PROFINET International.

● What is the copper cables?

The most common PROFINET copper cable is a 4-wire shielded, green-colored cable, which supports 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet at a distance of 100 meters. You can achieve Full Duplex transmission: meaning data can be transmitted in both directions through one cable simultaneously. Also, 8-core copper cables are available for 1 Gbps transmission rates.

In order to go further distances than the 100-meter limit, you have to install a node, like for example a switch, every 100 m. It’s similar to cable segments as a limiting factor in traditional fieldbuses. For example, in PROFIBUS networks you would implement PROFIBUS repeaters between segments to go longer distances.