Features according to ETG.1500 Master Classes

The ETG (EtherCAT Technology Group) has defined two EtherCAT Master Classes (ETG.1500) with a well defined set of Master functionalities:
Class A: Standard EtherCAT Master Device
Class B: Minimum EtherCAT Master Device
Additional Functionality, which can be considered to be optional, is described by Feature Packs. The Feature Pack describes all mandatory master functionality for a specific feature, e.g. Cable Redundancy.

Basic Features

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
Service Commands	Support of all commands	X	X
IRQ field in datagram	Use IRQ information from Slave in datagram header	X	X
Slaves with Device Emulation	Support Slaves with and without application controller	X	X
EtherCAT State Machine	Support of ESM special behavior	X	X
Error Handling	Checking of network or slave errors, e.g. Working Counter	X	X
VLAN	Support VLAN Tagging	X	-- (*2)
EtherCAT Frame Types	Support EtherCAT Frames	X	X
UDP Frame Types	Support UDP Frames	-- (*1)	-- (*2)
Multiple Instances	One control system operating multiple networks	X	X

Process Data Ex改变

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
Cyclic PDO	Cyclic process data ex改变	X	X
Multiple Tasks	Different cycle tasks  Multiple update rates for PDO	X	X
Frame repetition	Send cyclic frames multiple times to 增加 immunity	-- (*1)	-- (*2)

Network Configuration

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
Online scanning	Network configuration functionality included in EtherCAT Master	X	X
Reading ENI	Network Configuration taken from ENI file	X	X
Compare Network configuration	Compare configured and existing network configuration during boot-up	X	X
Explicit Device identification	Identification used for Hot Connect and prevention against cable swapping	X	X
Station Alias Addressing	Support configured station alias in slave,  i.e. enable 2nd Address and use it	X	X
Access to EEPROM	Support routines to access EEPROM via ESC register	X	X

Mailbox Support

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
Support Mailbox	Main functionality for mailbox transfer	X	X
Mailbox Resilient Layer	Support underlying resilient layer	X	X
Multiple Mailbox channels		X	X
Mailbox polling	Polling Mailbox state in slaves	X	X

CAN application layer over EtherCAT (CoE)

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
SDO Up/Download	Normal and expedited transfer	X	X
Segmented Transfer	Segmented transfer	X	X
Complete Access	Transfer the entire object (with all sub-indices) at once	X	X
SDO Info service	Services to read object dictionary	X	X
Emergency Message	Receive Emergency messages	X	X
PDO in CoE	PDO services transmitted via CoE	-- (*1)	-- (*2)

Ethernet over EtherCAT (EoE)

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
EoE protocol	Services for tunneling Ethernet frames. includes all specified EoE services	X	X
Virtual Switch	Virtual Switch functionality	X	X
EoE Endpoint to Operation Systems	Interface to the Operation System on top of the EoE layer	FP (*1)	FP (*2)

File access over EtherCAT (FoE)

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
FoE protocol	Support FoE Protocol	X	-- (*2)
Firmware Up-/Download	Password, FileName should be given by the application	X	-- (*2)
Boot State	Support Boot-State for Firmware Up/Download	X	-- (*2)

Servodrive-Profile over EtherCAT (SoE)

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
SoE Services	Support SoE Services	X	X

ADS over EtherCAT (AoE)

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
AoE Protocol	Support AoE Protocol	X	-- (*2)

Vendor over EtherCAT (VoE)

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
VoE Protocol	External Connectivity supported	X	-- (*2)

Synchronization with Distributed Clock (DC)

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
DC support	Support of Distributed Clock	X	-- (*2)
Continuous Propagation Delay compensation	Continuous Calculation of the propagation delay	X	-- (*2)
Sync window monitoring	Continuous monitoring of the Synchronization difference in the slaves	X	-- (*2)

Slave-to-Slave Communication

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
via Master	Information is given in ENI file or can be part of any 其他 network configuration. Copying of the data can be handled by master stack or master’s application. Required to support FSoE Safety slaves.	X	X

Master information

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
Master Object Dictionary	Support of Master Object Dictionary (ETG.5001 MDP sub profile 1100)	FP (*1)	FP (*2)

Feature Packs

Feature name	Short description	Class A	Class B
Cable Redundancy	Stay operational in case of cable break between two slaves	FP	FP
Hot Connect	Add or remove additional slave devices during bus communication is in progress. Newly added slaves are automatically transferred into the OPERATIONAL state.	FP	FP
TCP-Server and Remote API	The TCP-Server together with the Remote API library allows accessing EC-Master from a remote system	FP	FP
EoE Endpoint	The interface allows sending and receiving Ethernet frames to/from the EtherCAT network	FP	FP

FP: Available as Feature Pack
*1: According to ETG.1500 Master Classes not mandatory for Class A
*2: According to ETG.1500 Master Classes not mandatory for Class B

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