一些植物运营商仅采用以太网以此原因。“Ethernet像手套一样无线，”Arc咨询集团Inc.的高级分析师哈里·福伯斯说，在弥撒中。“这将使以太网大，因为人们现在携带笔记本电脑和手持设备，他们的设备都讲了802.11 [协议]。”
Forbes believes that the wireless connectivity in an Ethernet network will open up the possibility for a broader network that includes equipment that couldn’t previously be easily connected to a network. “There are things you can do with wireless that you can’t do with cabling. You can’t deal with motion without using wireless,” says Forbes.
“由于布线线束，具有机器人的生产系统需要定期更换。如果您有移动的东西，如果您可以使用无线连接，它会更好。“
Wireless networks allow for less expensive networks when running cables becomes prohibitively expensive. “A lot of our customers are in water and wastewater processing, and they say it takes $100 per foot to run a wire to a tank. So they use wireless connectors,” says Tom Edwards, senior technical advisor at Opto 22, a Temecula, Calif., vendor. A wireless network also frees the operators to roam through the networked system while staying connected.
无线连接的一个重要缺点是它在所有环境中都不起作用。“There are some issues with wireless that still need work,” says Francisco Tacoa, North American product manager for Weidmuller Advanced Connectivity Solutions, at The Weidmuller Group, in Richmond, Va. “With wireless, you can’t have an environment that is susceptible to electromagnetic interference.”
See the story that goes with this sidebar: Factory Ethernet Goes Mainstream
