SPRUII0F May 2019 – June 2024 TMS320F28384D , TMS320F28384D-Q1 , TMS320F28384S , TMS320F28384S-Q1 , TMS320F28386D , TMS320F28386D-Q1 , TMS320F28386S , TMS320F28386S-Q1 , TMS320F28388D , TMS320F28388S
EtherCAT uses standard IEEE 802.3 Ethernet frames, thus a standard network controller can be used and no special hardware is required on the master side. EtherCAT has a reserved EtherType of 0x88A4 that distinguishes this from other Ethernet frames. Thus, EtherCAT can run in parallel to other Ethernet protocols.
An EtherCAT frame is subdivided into the EtherCAT frame header followed by one or more EtherCAT datagrams. At least one EtherCAT datagram has to be in the frame. Only EtherCAT frames with Type 1 in the EtherCAT Header are currently processed by the ESCs. The ESCs also support IEEE802.1Q VLAN Tags, although the VLAN Tag contents are not evaluated by the ESC.