Moving from 4 wire to APL

[rumfreville]

Other than the change in physical interface are there any other differences between a 4 wire Ethernet Profinet device and an APL Profinet device? I've not seen anything written down outlining a migration path.

[VoGo]

Other than the change in physical interface are there any other differences between a 4 wire Ethernet Profinet device and an APL Profinet device? I've not seen anything written down outlining a migration path.

Well, there are some restrictions on the device that influence the device design. The power envelope of an APL device is typically 500mW - that includes processor, PHY and analog front end. Many traditional solutions for 4-wire Ethernet Profinet on the market use processors designed to handle more demanding applications and may consume more power.
Many APL devices use the PA Profile 4. While PA Profile is a pure software component, it is not a simple profile and supporting it requires the right software stack.
Last, not least, APL differs from 4-wire Ethernet in that a physical layer conformance test is required. This physical layer certification test is prerequisite to the normal Profinet testing.