For a long time, 100M industrial switches have been sufficient to handle traditional industrial scenarios that mainly rely on PLC control commands and simple sensor data (such as temperature and pressure) due to their high cost-effectiveness. However, with the deepening of Industry 4.0 and the emergence of Industry 5.0, 100M networks have changed from being "economical and practical" to becoming the "Achilles' heel" that restricts production capacity.
Combining recent advancements in industrial communication technology with cutting-edge academic consensus, the complete replacement of 10 Mbps with gigabit (1G) and even 10 Gigabit (10G) speeds is no longer a simple "speed upgrade," but a paradigm shift in the underlying architecture. The main driving forces stem from the following three major technological changes:
I. Machine Vision and Digital Twins Trigger a "Bandwidth Avalanche"
Traditional industrial control data is often only a few KB, while modern smart manufacturing introduces a large amount of unstructured data.
The proliferation of high-definition machine vision (AOI): According to recent research published in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (2024), modern panoramic automated optical inspection (AOI) and 3D vision-guided robots are experiencing an exponential increase in bandwidth throughput requirements. A single industrial camera supporting the GigE Vision protocol can easily exceed 800 Mbps in peak data flow. At such speeds, 100 Mbps switches not only cause extremely high packet loss rates but also slow down the production line due to waiting for visual assessments.
Digital Twin: To map a physical factory in real time in virtual space, massive amounts of micro-state data need to be aggregated on-site, supplemented by high-definition video streams. This "convergence of IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) data on the same network" has completely pushed the physical limits of 100 Mbps networks to their limits, making 10 Gigabit backbone ring networks and gigabit edge access standard.
II. The Physical Need for Extremely Low Transmission Latency in TSN (Time-Sensitive Networking)
The soul of industrial communication is determinism. As TSN technology moves from theory to large-scale commercial use, the size of network bandwidth directly affects the physical limits of "latency".
The Gap in Serialization Delay: Many engineers overlook a fundamental physical law: it takes time for a device to convert a data frame into an electrical/optical signal and send it over the network cable. Sending a standard 1500-byte Ethernet packet takes approximately 120 microseconds on a 100 Mbps network, only 12 microseconds on a gigabit network, and a dramatic drop to 1.2 microseconds on a 10 Gigabit network.
The academic consensus: Several cutting-edge papers on TSN scheduling published in 2025 clearly pointed out that in extremely complex industrial topologies, achieving microsecond-level multi-axis motion control synchronization cannot be accomplished solely through software-level time-aware scheduling. A gigabit physical layer is the minimum threshold for implementing complex TSN scheduling; otherwise, lengthy transmission delays will encroach on the control cycle, leading to the collapse of the entire real-time system.
III. Edge computing power deployment and the "backhaul anxiety" of next-generation wireless technology
The communication network in an industrial setting is a unified whole, and the rapid advancement of wireless technology is forcing a comprehensive upgrade of the wired backbone network.
The impetus from Wi-Fi 7 and 5G-A: Smart factories and unmanned ports are now deploying Wi-Fi 7 access points (APs) and 5G-A indoor small base stations in large numbers. A single Wi-Fi 7 industrial AP can achieve an actual air interface throughput of several Gbps. If the access switches providing network backhaul and PoE power supply are still only 100 Mbps or single gigabit speeds, a serious "funnel effect" will occur—wide wireless bandwidth but heavy congestion on the wired end. This necessitates that edge switches possess 2.5G/10G uplink backhaul capabilities.
Collaborative Edge Computing: Distributed computing power requires industrial switches to have stronger local processing capabilities. A 10-Gigabit fiber optic ring network can ensure that data synchronization between multiple edge computing nodes within the factory is completed within milliseconds, guaranteeing real-time inference of AI models.
In summary, the retirement of 100Mbps switches is not due to the end of their lifespan, but rather because they cannot support the operational logic of industrial AI, machine vision, and high-speed TSN. For enterprises today, deploying gigabit/10-gigabit networks is essentially "buying the right-of-way" for smart manufacturing in the next 5-10 years. This forward-looking investment in infrastructure will yield substantial returns through "zero network upgrade costs" when upgrading production lines later.
