Standards update: GigE Vision standard status and future: What you need to know

Since May 2006, when the GigE Vision standard was established, there have been three revisions, which took place in 2009, 2010 and 2011 (version 2.0).

While the last revision took place six years ago, those involved with the GigE Vision standard have remained busy. In the most recent Global Vision Standards Update released by the AIA, Bob McCurrach, AIA Director, Standards Development, provided a look into the latest news surrounding GigE Vision.

AIA standard updates

First, it was noted, that the committee is finalizing the content of 3D data support, which is being integrated into the text of the standard, including the necessary changes to the GenICam Pixel Format Naming Convention. From there, the announcement was made that two official sub-committees were being formed. These were the Mechanical committee, which is being headed by Marcel Naggatz from Baumer, and the Validation Framework committee, which is being headed by James Falconer from Pleora Technologies.

Lastly, it was announced that GigE Vision now offers a special licensing program for Ethernet products that don't implement the full standard, but are configured to easily integrate vision system components and could benefit from GigE Vision branding. Those interested in more details on the license form can visit: http://bit.ly/VSD-GigE-Doc.

GigE Vision Revision 2.1

The next iteration of the GigE Vision standard will be version 2.1, which is expected this year. Multipart image transfer, according to an article written by Winn Hardin, AIA Contributing Editor, will play a significant role in this revision. In response to vision companies' need for 3D image support, the standards' revision aims to ease transmission to multipart 3D images over GigE Vision.

"The main point of interest for GigE Vision these days is the upcoming release of multipart support," said Eric Carey, Business Director, Area Cameras and Frame Grabbers, Teledyne DALSA and chair of the GigE Vision Standard Committee. "This will facilitate the transfer of 3D data information from 3D cameras."

Another facet of revision 2.1 of the GigE Vision standard is locking connector standardization at the back of the camera with mechanical drawings for the dimensions used in the locking connectors. Further, revision 2.1 will feature a new profile to the optional IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP), which uses a very high-precision clock to synchronize all cameras on a network. Synchronizing multiple camera systems, wrote Hardin, typically requires dedicated trigger signals going to the frame grabber or camera, depending on the technology, which means a cable has to run from a common trigger source to all the cameras that need to synchronize.

By adding IEEE 1588 to GigE Vision, the internal time stamp used in GigE Vision-a 64-bit number that increments at a specific time interval-will use the PTP common time stamp as reference, meaning that all PTP-enabled cameras on the same network will share the same time stamp. The second benefit of the time stamp is the addition of a feature called "action command," which allows users to specify a time in the future for the synchronized, PTP-enabled cameras to execute the trigger operation without having to run the trigger wire. This, according to the AIA article, will give integrators the ability to remove an I/O cable and use only the Ethernet cable to provide data, power, and trigger to a GigE Vision camera. Additional items to look out for, suggested Carey, include new products using NBASE-T and 10GigE.

"NBASE-T supports 2.5 Gbps and 5 Gbps on the same twisted pair cable used by GigE. Some companies, including Teledyne e2v and Pleora Technologies, have announced products. 10GigE is also showing its nose, with products from FLIR (Formerly Point Grey) and Emergent Vision Technologies among others."

View the AIA article here: http://bit.ly/AIA-WINN