IIC 2018 Conference: Industrial Communication in the context of Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things

Plan to attend The IIC 2018 Conferences to gain deeper insights into new manufacturing technologies and ideas!

About the topic 

The requirements for networking in machine and plant engineering have grown steadily over the decades. Bus systems today must not only guarantee that data is exchanged quickly, precisely, efficiently, and safely between the peripheral components of a machine or system. In the course of the implementation of Industry 4.0 and IIoT concepts, additional requirements have to be fulfilled. Today, a consistent and secure communication with superimposed automation and IT systems is required, as is the horizontal networking with other machines and systems within a production plant. In addition, bus systems must contribute to converging conventional real-time Ethernet solutions into a uniform, standardized, and integrated network infrastructure.

Ethernet TSN and OPC UA are two emerging technologies that play an important role in advancing the convergence of IT and automation technology.

OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) provides a universal communication standard that allows systems to be networked from the enterprise level to the control or field level. OPC UA can not only be integrated into devices on any platform with different programming languages, but also arbitrarily complex systems can be described completely with OPC UA. Although OPC UA is a communication standard that extends from the enterprise level down to the field level, there is a major limitation. OPC UA can only replace existing fieldbus and Industrial Ethernet systems where there are no high temporal and deterministic requirements for communication.

At this point, Ethernet TSN comes into play. Time-sensitive networking (TSN) is an extension of the Ethernet IEEE 802.1 standards that makes time-controlled and deterministic transmission of real-time-critical messages possible for the first time in the 43-year history of unmodified Ethernet. The advantages of using Ethernet TSN in an automation system are obvious: instead of special hardware, standard Ethernet components with integrated real-time capabilities can be used. The cross-industry support (automotive, multimedia, automation) of the TSN technology results not only in low costs, but also the availability of a wide range of manufacturers and products. At the same time, manufacturers and users benefit from the newest technical developments such as higher transmission rates and protocol coexistence.

The following topics will be discussed:

• Evolution of industrial communication systems
• Trends in industrial communication in the context of Industry 4.0 and IIoT
• Convergence of IT and OT with Ethernet TSN and OPC UA
• Migration concepts for machines and machining systems

Registration is now open, so check out the IMTS 2018 website for more information. 

Meet your presenter 

Peter Lutz is the managing director at Sercos.