Blog

The M12 connector standard has been around since the 1980s, but the catalog has gotten more complex as industrial Ethernet moved into the form factor. If you're specifying connectors for a new control system — or migrating from DB9 or RJ45 — the coding table below is the first thing to get right.... Read more

Running power to an IP camera on the far end of a factory floor used to mean two separate runs: an Ethernet cable and a power cable, terminating in a junction box, usually somewhere inconvenient. PoE changes that equation. One cable, one connection, done.... Read more

Plant network architects are getting pressured from two directions at once. On one side: OT teams want wireless so they can move AGVs, connect handheld scanners, and stop running cable to every sensor. On the other: IT teams want something that integrates cleanly with enterprise Wi-Fi infrastructure and doesn't turn the 2.4 GHz band into a disaster. Meanwhile, vendors are pushing private 5G like it solves everything.... Read more

Walk any modern production floor and you'll see both approaches running side by side. CNC machining centers hardwired into PROFINET IRT rings. AGVs weaving between them on Wi-Fi 6. Neither is universally right. The question is which one fits your specific application — and where the wrong choice causes real pain.... Read more

Search for 'industrial Ethernet vs wireless' and you'll find plenty of content from vendors who sell one technology and gently steer you toward it. That's not what this is. The engineers and IT leads who contact L-com with connectivity questions almost always end up with a hybrid answer — a wired backbone for the deterministic, high-cycle-rate tasks and a wireless layer for anything that moves or sits too far from a cable run. The interesting design question isn't which technology wins; it's where each one stops being the right tool.... Read more

Artificial intelligence and high-performance computing are reshaping modern data center infrastructure. AI model training, machine learning applications, advanced analytics, and HPC (High-Performance Computing) environments require significantly higher bandwidth, lower latency, and greater network reliability than traditional enterprise workloads.... Read more

Modern industrial and outdoor networks operate in environments that place significant stress on physical connectivity infrastructure. Manufacturing plants, transportation systems, oil and gas facilities, outdoor wireless deployments, mining operations, and industrial automation environments all require networking components capable of withstanding demanding conditions without compromising performance.... Read more

System integrators understand that network downtime rarely starts with large-scale infrastructure failures. In many environments, outages begin with small physical layer issues such as loose connectors, damaged cable assemblies, poor cable routing, or unreliable Ethernet terminations. Even minor physical connectivity problems can disrupt critical systems, reduce network availability, and increase maintenance costs across enterprise and data center environments.... Read more

Modern data center deployments require speed, scalability, and operational efficiency. As organizations continue expanding cloud infrastructure, AI environments, edge computing, and enterprise networks, system integrators face increasing pressure to deploy infrastructure faster while maintaining reliability and performance consistency.... Read more

Modern data centers continue evolving toward higher rack densities, greater bandwidth demands, and more complex network architectures. As organizations expand cloud infrastructure, AI workloads, virtualization, and high-performance computing environments, rack-level connectivity planning becomes increasingly important for maintaining scalability, airflow efficiency, and long-term network reliability.... Read more