Abstract

Traditionally, networks used in manufacturing enterprises were optimized for performance in specific applications, most commonly for control, information, and safety. While well suited to the functionality for which they were designed, these networks were not developed with a single, coherent enterprise architecture in mind. Since efficiency, reliability, and, ultimately, profitability are generally dependent on having more than one of these capabilities, manufacturers were forced to implement several different networks, none of which communicated innately with the other. As a result, over the course of time, most manufacturing enterprise network environments have been characterized by numerous specialized—and generally incompatible—networks existing in one space.