Growth of PROFINET and the PI Organization

July 6th, 2009

A report from the 21st PI international meeting in Krakow, Poland:

PI Chairman, Joerg Freitag reported that PROFIBUS growth may be flat this year, an anomaly due to the economy.  But despite the economy, PROFINET continues to grow.

Speaking of growth, there are currently 25 Regional PI Associations (RPAs) with India in planning as #26 and interest in a 27th (it’s too early to reveal where).

During our joint meeting with the PI Competence Centers (PICCs), we learned that we are now up to 42 PICCs and 16 PI Training Centers (PITCs).  The PICCs provide network support to users and developers all around the globe.  Considering that none of the other fieldbus technologies have even the concept of such widespread centers of technical expertise, the number 42 is astounding.

Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, and Poland presented their accomplishments for the year.  All seemed to be involved in exhibitions although I got the sense that the importance of exhibitions was fading.  PTO stopped attending trade shows in North America due to the diminished attendance.  Instead we put our efforts into local free training classes.  Several RPAs have close ties to universities and that was also subject of a separate discussion: how can we help professors with resources for teaching fieldbuses, especially PROFIBUS and PROFINET.

The Danish RPA report included an anecdote about a drive supplier: The drive supplier currently supports both PROFIBUS and DeviceNet and is moving to Industrial Ethernet.  They decided to implement Ethernet/IP first because PROFIBUS was already fast enough for them while DeviceNet was not.  (A quick comparison: PROFIBUS runs at up to 12 Mbaud, DeviceNet to 0.5 Mbaud.  PROFIBUS telegrams are 244 bytes, DeviceNet, 8 bytes.  Factor in the greater number of devices available plus its application space including process and discrete and it’s easy to see why PROFIBUS has the largest installed base while DeviceNet is in third place.)

The German and US RPAs presented their marketing plans with an eye to providing other RPAs with ideas.  All of the RPAs had a few minutes to share the goings-on in their regions, too.

We spent some time talking about our own infrastructure – the tools we use for internal communications.  We did a workshop on the new international website, too.  We are pleased with the underlying technology of the site, but found areas where navigation and content needed work.  We knew this would be an ongoing project when we started a year ago and this helped us identify how to continue.

New documents and documents for review were presented.  This is a good time to remind PTO members to subscribe to the PTO Members Monthly Newsletter in order to keep up with new documents, calls for experts, and documents for review.

Although “Getting there was half the fun” did not apply to the journey, the meeting and the networking were very worthwhile.  Now I’m back in the office until the Boston PROFINET one-day training class.  That same week, Manny will be in Davenport, Iowa for a PROFIBUS class.  We hope to see you there or one of our other classes!

-Carl Henning

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Upgraded to First Class (to the wrong city)

July 3rd, 2009

Business travel can be such a joy.  This trip was to Krakow for the PI (PROFIBUS and PROFINET International) meeting.  Upgraded to First Class (to the wrong city).  Yes, it was that kind of trip.  My wife and I had a short layover in Chicago between Phoenix and Frankfurt – at least that was the schedule.  So when we arrived early from Phoenix and found that our departure gate was right next to the arrival gate we were thrilled.  Not so thrilled when they postponed the flight 30 minutes at a time… six times.  Then cancelled.  A quick call to reservations confirmed a new flight for the next day… to London and then to Frankfurt where we would miss our flight to Krakow.  (American Airlines provided hotel and food vouchers.)  Immediately called Lufthansa for the Frankfurt-Krakow changes.  Sorry, can’t do that on the phone; go to a ticket office.  The new, later non-stop flight is wide open so there should be no problem.   Since there was plenty of time the next day before the London flight, I went to the Lufthansa ticket office in Chicago’s terminal 1 – the farthest possible point from American.  Sorry, can’t do that here; you have to do that at the ticket office in Frankfurt.  Made it to London with a complimentary upgrade to first class, then Frankfurt.  Sorry, the flight to Krakow is completely booked; you are on standby, but we reserved seats on the only other flight today… through Munich.  (€50 each required – we are so nice to you – we are only charging the change fee, not the difference in fare.)  Ran in to many colleagues also going to Krakow at the gate.  They got on. We didn’t.  There were empty seats but the plane was overweight.  (I’ve got to cut the cookie intake, I guess.)  The gate agent could not issue new boarding passes; please go to the ticket office.  I spent one hour speaking to the agent who messed up the tickets by putting both tickets in my name (I’m really not that wide!).  (€59 each required for the difference in fare.  But the last agent said…  sorry, she is gone for the day.)  Somehow this required going in and out of security four times – my passport is filled with Frankfurt stamps.  And my wife had her suitcase bounce off an escalator and break her toe (probably).  So, six airports over three days to arrive 8 hours before the PI meeting.

The good news – the meeting was extremely worthwhile, the host was extremely hospitable, and I got to spend time with an old friend from the Wonder years.

Now we’re in Frankfurt, hoping against hope that tomorrow’s flight home is much smother than the trip over.

UPDATED: Made it home uneventfully… almost – just a minor delay while they removed a screw… from a tire.  They said it wasn’t a deep enough hole to cause a problem.  Apparently they were right.

–Carl Henning

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PI Meeting Impressions

July 1st, 2009

We of PROFIBUS and PROFINET International (PI) are in the middle of our 21st meeting.  We are in Krakow and moments ago we had our picture taken by Geoff Hodgkinson:
pi_meeting2009

                                                    (click for larger image)

The size of the community is amazing.  We have about 80 folks from 22 countries and 6 of the 7 continents here.  There are 25 Regional PI Association (RPAs), 42 PI Competence Centers (PICCs), and 16 ~PI Training Centers (PITCs).

More technical details to come…

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What are the differences between PROFIBUS V0, V1, and V2?

June 27th, 2009

The question was prompted at the Vancouver PROFINET one-day training class.  (Yes, we get PROFIBUS questions at the PROFINET class and vice versa.)

Here’s the summary:
DPV0: Cyclic Data Exchange, Diagnostics (all devices)
DPV1: Acyclic Data Exchange, Process Alarm Handling (process automation)
DPV2: Clock Synchronization & Time Stamp (drives)

For more details, read the “PROFIBUS System Description” (available in seven languages).

It’s important to note that the versions build one on the other and are interoperable and backward compatible.  In practical terms, this means that you can have, for example, a V1 controller over V0 and V1 slave devices.  The V0 devices will only report cyclic data and diagnostics (but these devices don’t have more to report anyway).

We generated a bit of internal discussion from this question revolving around PROFIsafe.  We show a timeline that shows PROFIsafe as being part of V1, but should more accurately indicate that its association with V1 is strictly from a timeline point of view.  PROFIsafe is an application profile and can therefore be used with any version of PROFIBUS… and with PROFINET.

After all the discussion, I’m finishing this on the plane for Poland and our international gathering of RPAs (Regional PI Associations) and PICCs (PI Competence Centers).  I’m looking forward to the information exchange with other regions of the world.  (We have about 80 folks from 22 countries and 6 of the 7 continents – including the Indian subcontinent.  Alas, we have no RPA in Antarctica.)  I’ll blog and tweet interesting news from Krakow.

Now I’m posting from Chicago since yesterday’s flight across the water was cancelled due to mechanical issues.  My first trip to Europe for PTO also had an unplanned 22-hour layover in Chicago.<sigh>

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The Smell of the Rosin; The Roar of the Amplifier

June 19th, 2009

A Fathers Day tribute at the intersection of personal and professional.

I read a HubSpot blog post called “How Do You Balance Personal and Professional on Social Media?”  I keep my personal and professional lives separated online by using Facebook for personal and LinkedIn and Twitter for professional as I’ve posted before.  But today’s post is at the intersection of personal and professional. 

As Fathers Day approaches, I was thinking about my father’s contributions to my becoming an engineer.  My father was a blue collar, union guy.  He installed and maintained two-way radios in vehicles at the Ravenna Arsenal.  When radios were transitioning from tubes to transistors the company sent him to school to learn the new technology.  So when my curiosity about solid state devices was aroused, he drew and explained PNP and NPN transistors.  I was twelve.  My parents allowed me to order a series of science kits, probably from an ad in Popular Science.  Every month or so a new kit would arrive; they always built on earlier kits.  I most remember the electronics and optics kits.  The optics kits included prisms and lenses.  The lenses, being of uniform sizes could be assembled and reassembled in black cardboard tubes.  The electronics kits included parts for oscillators and amplifiers… using tubes of course.  My dad taught me how to solder the components properly: trim the leads, crimp them on the solder lugs, and heat the work not the solder.  The smell of rosin from rosin-core solder always reminds me of this lesson.  I learned so well that when he got the Allied Electronics amplifier kit (transistor-based) for our home stereo system, I was entrusted to do some of the assembly.  I’m proud to say it worked when we finished!

From there it was on to computers, but I already blogged about that.  (Be sure to click through to the ad to see a picture.)

Dedicated to my father: C. Glenn Henning Sr., 1920-2004

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Is PROFINET routable? (Report from Vancouver)

June 18th, 2009

The question came up at the PROFINET one-day training class in Vancouver: “Is PROFINET routable?”  In other words, can PROFINET messages be sent through a router?

First, a little background.  In an Ethernet network, several types of device can be used: hubs, switches, and routers.  Each works at a different layer of the ISO/OSI reference model.  Here is a summary of the ISO/OSI reference model:
ISO Model
                      (click for larger image)
Hubs work at layer 1 of the ISO/OSI seven layer model.  Hubs are not recommended for industrial networks because they send an incoming message on any port out of every other port.  This creates too much traffic to maintain deterministic behavior on the network.  Switches operate at layer 2.  In the Ethernet world this uses the physical address of the device – the MAC address.  Layers 3 (IP) and 4 (TCP or UDP) are not involved.  Routers use layer 3 and communicate using the IP address.  Routers are necessary when communicating from one subnet to another.  (For more on subnets, see our archived webinar, “Industrial Ethernet, Advanced Ethernet Architecture.”)

PROFINET communicates in two ways: via TCP/IP and via the PROFINET real-time channel.  The PROFINET real-time (RT) channel basically skips the TCP/IP portion of the communications stack.  In other words, PROFINET RT uses layers 1, 2, and 7 of the ISO stack just like PROFIBUS and other fieldbuses do.  We do this to reduce jitter.  But since it does not use IP, it can’t pass through a router.  Fortunately, PROFINET CBA (Component Based Automation, our peer-to-peer communications) allows us to use TCP/IP for communications, too… and that is routable.  So the short answer after the long background: Yes, PROFINET is routable using PROFINET CBA.  (Caveat: using TCP/IP and going through a router will introduce some modest delays compared to PROFINET RT.)
More on the Vancouver class: Most attendees indicated on the course evaluations that the course length was “just right” and several though it “too long.”  Perhaps best summarized by someone as “Long, but good.”  I agree that it was too long, actually.  A couple folks suggested we cut the introduction down.  We will have that done before our next class in Boston on July 23.

Other comments:
“Effective use of our time.  Webinars are a great feature.”
“Worked well with two instructors (also there was consistency with the webinars).”  [You can find those webinars here.]
“Well paced. Well led.”
 “Instructors have impressive knowledge of PROFINET.” [They probably meant Hunter, but I’ll bask in his reflected glory.]

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23-minute Intro to PROFINET

June 17th, 2009

I was one of four presenters at GlobalSpec’s virtual conference and exhibit.  If you need a really brief introduction to PROFINET, the presentation is archived in the “Conference Center” there.  I wasn’t able to answer all the questions, but look for a document with all the questions answered on the site as well.

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PROFINET Certified Network Engineer Training

June 12th, 2009

How do you gauge the growth of your favorite technology without an expensive market company study?  (PROFINET being the technology; it’s my favorite.)  One way is the number of people coming to the free one-day training classes.  (An ever-increasing number.)  A second is those taking the next step and clamoring for the next class – the full week Certified Network Engineer class.  (We’ve had to add a class for July 27-31.  Seats still available.)  Third, how busy are the test labs in certifying new PROFINET products.  (Really, really busy.  Device manufacturers need to reserve their test slot early!)  The economy may be down, but clearly many of you are using this time to prepare for the inevitable upturn.

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Wireless Ethernet Safety

June 11th, 2009

One of the other questions that came up in Grand Rapids came up during the PROFINET section and related to safety.  I thought it worth expanding on the answer to that.  The question: “Can I use PROFINET over wireless in a PROFIBUS PA environment?”

First, let’s be clear that we are talking about two different kinds of safety – intrinsic safety and functional safety.  Intrinsic safety is for atmospheres where a spark can cause an explosion.  Functional safety is protection against machinery malfunctioning and causing damage or injury.

The answer to the question then is yes and no.  No, you can not use PROFINET in an explosive atmosphere; there is no intrinsically safe Ethernet standard.  Yes, you can connect a functional-safety-rated PROFIBUS PA device through a PROFINET proxy and from there wirelessly to a safety controller.  PROFIsafe is the technology that allows safety over a bus regardless of the transmission media (serial or Ethernet, wired or wireless).  More on PROFIsafe.   Or click on the PROFIsafe or safety tags in the right-hand column.  (I’ve started updating past posts with tags.  I’m back about 8 months so far.  I really like the new blog software!)

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How many devices on a PROFIBUS DP network in Grand Rapids?

June 10th, 2009

There was a good crowd at the Grand Rapids PROFIBUS one-day training class last week.  Manny and Torsten were there while I was in Vancouver with Hunter for a PROFINET one-day training class.  One of the questions that came up in Grand Rapids concerned how many PROFIBUS DP devices are allowed on a network.  We have a slide that addresses that:
Network Segmentation

(click for larger image) 

The questioner thought that the four devices with no address still counted against the 126 allowable addresses on a network.  They don’t.  They do count against the number of devices on a segment and that probably accounts for the confusion.  The address space is independent of the network segmentation.  (Segmentation is provided by the repeaters.)  So while the repeaters count against the physical number of devices that are allowed on a segment, they do not have an address.  Why the limit of 32 physical devices on a segment?  That’s a limit of RS485 that PROFIBUS DP is based on.  For more details see the Wikipedia article and especially the B&B Electronics link at the bottom: “Technical library of RS-485 articles and application notes.” 

Bottom line: we’re talking about two different domains – physical and virtual.  The physical with limits imposed by the RS485 standard and the virtual address space independent of the physical with limits from the PROFIBUS specification.  Or, more basically, the devices with no address don’t subtract from the total number of addresses available.

As always there were suggestions on topics to increase and topics to decrease.  As always some wanted to increase and others to decrease the same topic!  We continue to try to balance that.

Other comments from the Course Evaluations:

“Great course.  Learned a lot from ‘the bottom up.’  They (correctly) assumed I knew nothing about PROFIBUS.”

“Was good to have vendors here. Was glad there wasn’t a sales pitch.”

“The Canadian had an awesome sense of humor.”  [Yes, Manny, the Canadian, went to Michigan and Carl, the American, went to Canada.  I do have to note that I lived in Canada for a couple years and speak nearly-fluent Canadian.]

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