On the use of Ethernet at low level of factory communication systems
Computer Standards & Interfaces
Essential COM
Journal of Network and Computer Applications
Enforcing the timing behavior of real-time stations in legacy bus-based industrial Ethernet networks
Computer Standards & Interfaces
An experimental approach to estimate real-time characteristic of PROFINET IO versus PROFIBUS DP V2
IMCAS'06 Proceedings of the 5th WSEAS international conference on Instrumentation, measurement, circuits and systems
An extension of the OMNeT++ INET framework for simulating real-time ethernet with high accuracy
Proceedings of the 4th International ICST Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques
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Nowadays, Ethernet networks may be profitably employed also at the lowest levels of factory automation systems. Indeed, suitable application layer protocols for Ethernet have been recently developed in order to cope with the critical requirements imposed by the industrial applications. In this paper we focus on the protocols used by PROFINET, an emerging standard for industrial communications based on Ethernet, which is now available in two different versions, named CBA and IO. After a description of the protocols, we show the results of some tests aimed at evaluating the performances of such a network. In particular, we concentrate the attention on the times necessary to transfer limited amounts of data among stations. With regard to PROFINET CBA, the outcomes of an experimental set-up comprising several components, show, for the transfer times, highly variable values, dependent on the network load. Conversely, for PROFINET IO, the results of a set of numerical simulations we performed, allow to expect constant transfer times of some milliseconds, or even less, provided that an accurate time synchronization between stations is maintained.