How Ethernet can drive Internet of Things for Enterprise

By Zia Askari

Discovered over forty years back as a local area network (LAN) communications fabric, Ethernet has surely come a long way and today it is fast becoming a de-facto standard for pushing enterprise communications ahead and create innovative opportunities for telecom operators to create value for their enterprise customers.

Primarily driven by its capabilities to deliver better SLA driven communications at a cheaper rate, Ethernet is now one of the leading standard network protocols for driving both wireless and wired business-grade communications services involving – voice, data, video, and Internet traffic – in most of the global WAN deployments.

The Emergence of Enterprise IoT

Whether it is the enterprise segment of retail or industrial manufacturing, healthcare or automotive, there is this emergence of device driven ecosystems that need to be managed and the enterprise productivity is often directly related to the productivity of such multi-device ecosystems.

This is where Ethernet is finding its way as it holds great potential to establish a reliable and cost efficient way to drive communications for enterprise IoT applications. Here is why…

Ethernet is becoming the first network protocol choice for most of the CIOs as it drives better manageability of networks and also helps in maintaining transparency on data, voice and video consumptions for the enterprise.

Additionally, with the help of Ethernet, networks can become faster while at the same time it can be driven in a cheaper manner, with ease of manageability when compared to other network protocols. All these factors are making Ethernet a compelling fabric to enable seamless and reliable connectivity needed for enterprise IoT applications.

Where can Ethernet Blend in

Ethernet is finding applications in a wide array of enterprise networks today, especially in areas such as enterprise process control, plant automation, smart-grid energy distribution, transportation are fast adopting Ethernet network protocols.

Concurrent to its adoption in various industry segments, there is an interesting transition happening to the standards-based Ethernet protocol. Quite central to this evolution of Ethernet is the growth in machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, the acceleration of wireless technology, as well as increased and improved sensor technology that can now handle multiple set of devices.

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