Safety critical LAN interfaces

DragonPetter

Hi,

I am curious if ethernet or arcnet are appropriate for safety critical applications. With the multiple levels of the OSI model, I assume there are many opportunities both for increasing and accidentally decreasing reliability, redundancy, and risk mitigation. Are there such things as safety rated drivers? I know that some PHY/MAC chips can be bought for extended operating temperatures. I know very little about the details of networking.

What about internet protocol like TCP/IP? Is this feasible for safety applications?