What do users of the technology think of this precarious situation?
Stefan Schönegger, Vice President for Product Strategy at B&R, gives his opinion.

Mr. Schönegger, how important is Single Pair Ethernet to you as an automation specialist?

Schönegger: Single Pair Ethernet plays an important role for us because we see great potential and benefits for our customers in this technology. Cables and connectors are significantly smaller and lighter, which reduces space requirements and costs. Thanks to its great flexibility, Single Pair Ethernet is just as suitable for very long distances in the process industry as it is for standard applications in discrete manufacturing. The available bandwidths range from 10 Mbit to the gigabit range. It is also important that energy can be transmitted in a standardized way on the same cable pair as the information. It can therefore be said quite clearly that SPE will significantly simplify the cabling of machines and systems.

The standardization work for this standard is in full swing. What is already in place and what still needs to be done?

Schönegger: Standardization is already very advanced and should be completed in the course of the year. What is still missing is a decision by the market between the remaining options. That sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. Standardization does not necessarily mean that a single option has been chosen.

There are currently two standardization efforts for SPE - one under the flag of Phoenix Contact and the other under the reign of Harting. Are the two variants significantly different?

I don't think the technical differences are sufficiently relevant. It is therefore definitely not expedient to establish different mating faces for the same purpose. Quite the opposite: this redundancy is unsettling and jeopardizes the market penetration of SPE as a whole. Thanks to the global agreement on OPC UA over TSN, the time to introduce a new connector standard would be more favorable than ever before.
However, the time window for a decision is very small. From my point of view, we are talking about a few months left to finalize the issue. Otherwise, the decisions for the next seven to ten years have largely been made.

If the connector manufacturers can't come to an agreement, the users - in this case the automation companies and fieldbus organizations - could take the decision on actual standardization off their hands. What is B&R's specific position in this environment and how do you want to contribute to the solution?

Schönegger : The main players in the last two years have been the manufacturers of connectors and cables. So far, we have only been observers. However, if we don't see a trend towards a prompt decision in the next two to three months, we will get actively involved. We will then contribute to the decision-making process together with other automation manufacturers. We are currently analyzing the market movements since the SPS trade fair and will determine our activities accordingly.

The SPE counterparties

The "Single Pair Ethernet Industrial Partner Network" has been formed under the aegis of Harting: With Harting, TE Connectivity, Hirose, Würth Elektronik, Leoni, Murrelektronik and Softing IT Networks, seven companies are promoting the SPE mating face submitted by Harting for standardization.
Phoenix Contact claims to be working with Belden, Fluke Networks, Reichle & De-Massari and Weidmüller to develop standardized mating faces for IP20 and IP6x environments.