The real-time industrial network, often referred to as fieldbus, is an important element for intelligent manufacturing systems. Thus, in order to satisfy the real-time requirements of field devices, numerous fieldbus protocols have been announced. But, the application of fieldbus has been limited due to the high cost of hardware and the difficulty in interfacing with multi-vendor products. Therefore, as an alternative to fieldbus, the computer network technology, especially Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), is being adapted to the industrial environment. However, the crucial technical obstacle for Ethernet is its non-deterministic behavior that makes it inadequate for industrial applications where real-time data have to be delivered within a certain time limit. Recently, the development of switched Ethernet shows a very promising prospect for industrial application due to the elimination of uncertainties in the network operation resulting in much improved performance. This paper focuses on the application of the switched Ethernet with cascade structure for industrial communications. More specifically, this paper presents an analytical performance evaluation of switched Ethernet with cascade structure, and a case study about networked control system.