Quality inspection systems represent major investments both in capital cost and R&D. However, careful selection of the high-speed transport medium can significantly lower operating expenses and quickly prove advantageous. GigE Vision over 10 GigE fulfills the cost criteria while delivering the exceptional performance required for most industrial applications. This article examines the key characteristics of GigE Vision over 10 GigE that have made it so popular among systems integrators and engineers alike, and describes two sample applications that illustrate just how cost-effective it can be to convert or to upgrade existing installations.

Industry Adoption

Recent system deployments employing GigE Vision over 10 GigE have proven that it is both economical and reliable, and consequently is rapidly becoming the preferred protocol for high-speed video transmission in machine vision systems. A number of critical factors have contributed to its success:

• GigE Vision over 10 GigE uses the field-proven GigE Vision standard, which was introduced in 2006, and which is widely adopted by the machine vision industry
• Ethernet is a well-proven standard - 10 GigE was ratified by the IEEE over a decade ago
• Networking components are widely available and are also in use outside the machine vision segment
• Newer PCs, without the use of dedicated acquisition hardware or frame grabbers, have more than enough computing power to receive and process images at 10 Gbps
• Power consumption is manageable
• Costs are decreasing due to cross-industry adoption.

The fact that Ethernet is the primary technology in use for LANs and WANs around the world also helps enormously to ensure its future. Components developed for the mass market by industry giants such as Intel, Cisco, and Apple exhibit exceptional quality and high reliability. Other niche protocols that are practically exclusive to machine vision applications run the risk of obsolescence because the effort devoted to ongoing development becomes cost-prohibitive. An increasing number of incumbent manufacturers, together with new market entrants, are introducing high-resolution cameras with GigE Vision over 10 GigE interfaces, which reinforces the trend of growing market demand. And the more competitive the market becomes, the better the price-performance ratio.
Just as decisively, upgrading from systems currently using GigE Vision at 1 Gbps requires only modest capital and R&D investment because of the outstanding forward compatibility of both Ethernet and GigE Vision. The use of the same protocols means few, if any, code revisions and a much lower risk to system stability. In contrast, CoaXPress and Camera Link HS need new acquisition libraries to deal with frame grabbers - libraries which differ with each manufacturer.

Applications

Since 2006, GigE Vision has been employed in a wide variety of industrial, commercial and government applications. Two representative applications - a paper inspection system and an LCD panel inspection system -show just how cost-effective it can be to implement GigE Vision over 10 GigE.
A paper inspection system consists of two Camera Link medium cameras connected to a PC located some 12 meters apart - Figure 1. The separation is desirable so that sensitive processing equipment can be located away from the dust and harsh environment of the manufacturing area, eliminating the need for specialized enclosures - which can run to several hundred Euro each - and also increasing the lifetime of the processing equipment.  Installation saves the considerable cost, added complexity and cumulative risk of extra cables and extenders that a Camera Link system requires - see Figure 2. Even after taking into account the cost of the components required for the GigE Vision over 10 GigE equipment, the savings are in the order of 20 percent. Further still, manufacturing facilities frequently require either more cameras or even longer cable reaches, in which case the savings would be even greater.
In the second example, an LCD panel inspection system rapidly verifies the integrity of every pixel using several cameras mounted on a gantry - see Figure 3. After examining the options, it quickly becomes clear that upgrading the existing GigE Vision system to 10 GigE is by far the most economical solution.
This system previously used native GigE Vision cameras and therefore the software development efforts to adopt a higher speed interface are almost nil.  Because the protocol stack (GigE Vision, GenICam, UDP, IP, and Ethernet) does not change when transitioning from GigE to 10 GigE, the SDK and drivers can also remain unchanged.  Additionally, the new 10 GigE system retains the low latency and jitter characteristics, as well as the proven packet resend method of the previous GigE Vision system, ensuring high system performance and reliability with very low risk.

Conclusions

The use of GigE Vision over 10 GigE matches the key performance benefits required by systems integrators and engineering managers with affordable price points and high reliability. In the area of automated quality inspection systems, faster product verification and greater in-depth analyses deliver higher yields and increased profit margins. Whether converting from Camera Link or upgrading an existing GigE Vision system, savings are realized in the reduced development effort and capital procurement cost, as well as in the longer term capability to scale. The transition is made even easier by the universal adoption of Gigabit Ethernet technology and its continued development into the foreseeable future, thereby ensuring availability of networking components and reducing the investment risk.