Fieldbus Technology in Industrial Automation

Abstract

Fieldbus technology in industrial automation is not only relatively complex because of the number of solutions possible, but also, and above all, because of the variety of applications. Ironically, these in turn are responsible for the multitude of solutions available. If the analysis of the basic needs is relatively standard, as they will always involve connecting sensors, actuators, and field controllers with each other, the options in architecture are numerous and can impose the need for certain services. The required performances themselves and the quality of service expected fundamentally depend on the applications. This article traces this technology from its beginnings, which go back to the first industrial networks in the 1970's. The principal stages of development are recounted, from the initial requirement specifications to the current state of international standardization. The diverse technical solutions are then analyzed and classified. In particular, we study the temporal aspects, the medium access control protocols and application relationships.

Self-organization of reconfigurable protocol stack for networked control systems

“…The layered protocol stack usually consists of five layers: the physical, data Link, network, transport, and application layers with reference to the OSI model [17] . Motivated by the existing layering architecture, the function and layer compositions are reconstructed for better severing the reconfiguration viewpoint.…”

“…Users can obtain instantiations of the reconfigurable protocol stack for different real time application requirements from the proposed architectural design. Specifically, our architecture is originally derived from the reduced open system interconnect (OSI) referenced model, which has been the common practice for protocol standards in the factory network community [17] , e.g., standards of Fieldbus or Industrial Ethernet defined by the international electrotechnical commission (IEC) community. Compared with the existing layered stack models, the routing and scheduling scheme related to the QoS control are highlighted as the core of the protocol stack in our architecture.…”

A bandwidth allocation scheme in fieldbuses

“…As shown in Fig. 1, the time division multiplexing interval 1 T is subdivided into the periodic interval p τ and the time-available interval . a τ Periodic data are transmitted through the periodic interval.…”

“…The fieldbus is the lowest level of industrial network available in the communication hierarchy of factory automation and distributed process control systems [1][2][3]. Data generated from field devices interconnected into a fieldbus are largely divided into three categories: periodic, time-critical, and time-available data.…”

Safety Evaluation of Fail-Safe Fieldbus in Safety Related Control System

“…In the area of conventional industry networks Fieldbus technology [3], [4], is becoming a standard and many implementations appear in the safety-related applications [5], [6]. Nowadays, the standard IEC 61784-3 [7] deals with a definition of functional safety of industrial networks within a digital communication dedicated to use in the area of measuring and control systems in industry and defines safety profiles for CPF (Communication Profile Family) CPF2 (CIP Safety) [8], CPF3 (ProfiSafe) [9] and CPF6 (InterbusSafety) [10].…”