What Is a GigE Vision Camera?

A GigE Vision camera is an industrial camera that connects to a computer over Ethernet and follows the GigE Vision standard, published by A3 (the Association for Advancing Automation, formerly the AIA) since 2006. The standard defines how a camera is found on the network, how it is controlled and how image data is streamed, so any compliant camera works with any compliant software. Buyers often shorten the name to GigE camera.

Two protocols run over UDP. The GigE Vision Control Protocol (GVCP) discovers cameras and reads and writes their settings. The GigE Vision Streaming Protocol (GVSP) carries the image data, split into packets that the receiving computer reassembles into frames. Camera settings such as exposure, gain and trigger mode are described with GenICam, a companion standard from the European Machine Vision Association, so one application can drive cameras from different manufacturers in the same way.

The camera itself is usually a compact metal housing with a lens mount, an image sensor, often global shutter, a network port and an I/O connector for triggers and strobes. Because it sends uncompressed frames, the image the software measures is exactly what the sensor captured, with no compression artefacts to mislead an inspection.

USB cameras are simple but limited to short cables and one host port per camera. GigE Vision uses ordinary Ethernet, which brings four practical advantages.

GigE Vision trades some bandwidth for distance and flexibility. The other machine vision interfaces make different trade-offs.

At 1 Gb/s, one GigE camera delivers roughly 110 to 120 MB/s of image data, enough for a 5-megapixel monochrome sensor at around 20 frames per second. Faster sensors need 2.5, 5 or 10GigE versions, or several cameras on separate ports. Our GMSL2 explainer covers the main alternative on mobile robots.

The standard has grown with Ethernet itself. GigE Vision 1.x defined discovery, control and streaming over Gigabit Ethernet. Version 2.0, released in 2011, added support for 10 Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 1588 timestamps and compressed image formats. Later revisions added multi-part transfers, so a 3D camera can send depth, intensity and confidence data in one frame. GigE Vision 3.0 added RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE v2), which moves images straight into memory with very little processor load at 10, 25 Gb/s and above.

When choosing a camera, start from the sensor: resolution, frame rate and shutter type decide the bandwidth, and the bandwidth decides whether 1 GbE is enough. Then check the PoE class against the ports available, the trigger and strobe I/O, the operating temperature and, for outdoor or washdown use, an IP67 housing with M12 connectors.

A GigE camera needs no proprietary frame grabber, but it does need a well-behaved network. For best results, give each camera, or each small group, its own network port; enable jumbo frames so each packet carries more image data; and use network cards with enough receive buffers that no packets are dropped. Camera SDKs often include a filter or performance driver for common Intel network controllers, which lowers processor load when several cameras stream at once. Our Ethernet and PoE frame grabbers add several PoE camera ports to an industrial computer, and our M12 Ethernet switches connect cameras on vehicles and machines with locking, sealed connectors.

On a moving machine, the cameras, switch and computer all need to cope with dust, water and vibration. Our spot spraying case study runs GigE cameras through a sealed M12 switch into a rugged Jetson computer. Our guide to global vs rolling shutter helps choose the sensor for moving targets.

We build machine vision computers with PoE camera ports as standard, install the camera SDK and drivers and test each camera link before the system ships.