Avago Technologies announced that its industrial Fast Ethernet optical transceivers based on the AFBR-5978Z had been selected by Phoenix Contact and Siemens. According to the company, the AFBR-5978Z is the only industrial Fast Ethernet optical transceiver to incorporate a digital diagnostic monitoring interface (DMI). The DMI permits realtime monitoring of transceiver performance and system stability, even in cross-continent installations, resulting in higher factory network uptime.

Because of its immunity characteristics from electrical "noise," plastic optical fibre (POF) is an attractive alternative to copper in industrial and automotive automated applications.

"Fibre-optic transmission has many advantages in the industrial field," said Roland Berg, senior research and development manager at Phoenix Contact, a developer of industrial connection, automation, electronic interface, and surge protection technologies. "Avago has designed its high-speed optical transceiver with superior link distances and easy device integration. Additionally, the transceiver's optimized transmission diagnostics enable us to provide customers with a world-class product for industrial networking needs."

Industrial Fast Ethernet represents an upgrade path for fieldbus networks and other proprietary industrial networking protocols.