
39-1
39.1 Introduction
Ethernet POWERLINK (EPL) is a real-time Ethernet (RTE) network originally developed by B&R
GmbH
[1]
and
currently
managed
by
the
Ethernet
POWERLINK
Standardization
Group
(EPSG)
[2].
e
rst
version
of
EPL
was
developed
by
B&R
in
2001
and
subsequently
published
as
an
open
standard,
namely
version
2.0
[11],
by
the
EPSG
in
2003.
Such
a
version
has
been
then
encompassed
in
the
IEC
61784
International
Standard
[7]
where
it
is
referred
as
Communication
Prole
(CP)
#1
of
the
Communication
Prole
Family
(CPF)
#13.
A
more
recent
version
of
the
EPL
specication
[6]
is
currently
downloadable
from
the
EPSG
Web
site.