International IEC 63171-6 Standard for Uniform M3I3C3E3 Single Pair Ethernet interface Published, Allowing For Complete IIoT Network Standards for SPE

February 25, 2020

On January 23, 2020, the IEC standardisation committee SC 48B published IEC 63171-6 as an international standard for Ethernet interfaces using only single pair wires. The T1 Industrial Style mating face described in the standard was included in standardisation by HARTING in 2016 and is now the internationally standardised default interface for SPE networks in M₃I₃C₃E₃ environments (industry).

IEC 63171-6 is included as a complete standard document with all specifications and test parameters in ISO/IEC 11801-3 for cabling and represents the specified standard interface. It is still possible, however, to use cabling components other than in IEC 63171-6, but these are not compliant with the standard and may pose a risk of functional loss.

For this reason, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 25/WG 3 started an international selection process in 2018, at the request of IEEE 802.3, which gives a recommendation for a SPE Media Dependent Interface (MDI). As a result of this choice of over 20 national standardisation bodies, a mating face has prevailed for industrial applications:

For the industry and industry-related applications (M₂I₂C₂E₂ and M₃I₃C₃E₃) the mating face according to IEC 63171-6. This mating face is based on the proposal from HARTING T1 Industrial.

This result has been confirmed by TIA TR-42 and IEEE802.3cg. The T1 Industrial plug-in face supported by the SPE Partner Network in accordance with IEC 63171-6 is the standard interface for a standardised M₃I₃C₃E₃ end-to-end connection in single-pair Ethernet networks.

The founding members of the SPE partner network (HARTING, TE Connectivity, HIROSE, LEONI, Murrelektronik, Würth Electronic and softing IT network) as well as the companies igus, DEHN, HELUKABEL, Molex, Amphenol ICC, Lütze, ESCHA, Perinet, EKF and Zheijang which joined after the SPS 2019, support this common standard IEC 63171-6.

Single pair Ethernet is the infrastructure basis that makes IIoT and Industry 4.0 possible.

For more information, visit www.single-pair-ethernet.com.