For years, the creation of large-scale computer networks was only used to connect computers. The decrease in price and the increase in the computing power of small microcontrollers have started the rapid process of connecting low-power devices, mainly performing control and measurement functions, to local Ethernet networks or even to the global Internet network.
Moreover, these solutions also began to appear in professional industrial networks, gradually replacing the older RS232-based systems and their derivatives. Thus, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the era of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) began. Although the current IoT market is primarily dominated by devices communicating via wireless networks and Wi-Fi, ZigBee, BLE or Z-Wave standards, there are still many hardware solutions (mainly the so-called IIoT – Industrial Internet of Things) that provide reliable transmission and requires data security, the Ethernet network remains one of the most popular solutions. The Arduino platformits creators did not leave the needs of designers of IIoT devices unanswered and expanded the standard range of Arduino modules with the Ethernet Shield 2 addressed to individual users, or the Arduino MKR ETH SHIELD for professional solutions, on WIZnet controllers W5100/W5200/W5500 and integrated with a circuit based on the integration of MAC and PHY circuits. This offering was quickly expanded by independent manufacturers, adding new and much cheaper modules based on the popular ENC28J60. This article provides a brief description of both solutions: the official one based on the W5x00 series chips, and the mainly community-developed open source/open hardware solution based on ENC28J60 modules .
Communication using WIZnet W5x00 modules and the Arduino Ethernet library
An important advantage of the official modules based on the W5x00 series systems (including their hardware counterparts such as the OKYSTAR OKY2102 or DFROBOT DFR0125 overlay) is that they provide full software support in the form of an Ethernet library embedded in the Arduino stack. Thus, after starting the Arduino IDE , the user can start creating the program without having to install additional software packages.
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