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Data Forecast: Partly Cloudy

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C O N T E N T S

The Hidden Safety NetworkA Black Channel Takes a Path Through the Network That ‘Didn’t See a Thing’

BY IAN VERHAPPEN, INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION NETWORKS

Smarter, Simpler ConnectionsMore Customized Machines and Machine-Mount I/O Lead to a Call for Increasingly Intelligent Connection and Cabling Solutions

7 FIRST BIT Wireless Standards Then and Now

8 PACKETS Profi net Gathers Momentum as

Single Network

11 BUS STOP Repair & Refurbish or Rip & Replace?

20 PARITY CHECK Get Your Industrial Network Right

24 BANDWIDTH Fiberoptics Extend Ethernet’s Empire

25 PRODUCTS

26 TERMINATOR Ethernet? At What Cost?

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS

COVER STORY

17

INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING is published four times annually to select subscribers of CONTROL and CONTROL DESIGN magazines by PUTMAN MEDIA INC. (also publishers of CHEMICAL PROCESSING, FOOD PROCESSING, PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING and PLANT SERVICES), 555 W. Pierce Road, Suite 301, Itasca, IL. (Phone: 630/467-1300; Fax: 630/467-1124) Address all correspondence to Editorial and Executive Offi ces, same address. ©Putman Media 2012. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or part without consent of the copyright owner. INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING assumes no responsibility for validity of claims in items reported. Single copies $15.

D E S I G N 1 7

R E S E A R C H 2 1

52012 Q 2 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING

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Data Forecast: Partly Cloudy

Let Somebody Else Handle the Data Flow? It’s Tempting, but

Are the Controls and Safeguards Convincing Enough to Tie the

Plant to Cloud-Based Services?

BY DAN HEBERT, PE, SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR

E V A L U A T E 1 2

We’re the connect-convert-control-visualize-integrate-and-adapt networking specialists.

This is why the automation industryhas become so attached to us.

Supported Real-Time Ethernet Systems

SupportedFieldbus Systems

72012 Q2 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING

THE CONCERNS ABOUT

RELIABILITY AND

SECURITY ARE NOT

AT THE SAME LEVELS

THEY WERE 10 YEARS

AGO, BUT USERS ARE

STILL RELUCTANT

TO PUT TOO MUCH

TRUST IN WIRELESS

TECHNOLOGIES.

AARON HANDMANAGING [email protected]

F I R S T B I T

AS EXECUTIVE EDITOR JIM MONTAGUEreflected in this space in our Q1 issue, Industrial Networking celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. He took us on an interesting ride that showed that, while industrial networking technologies have advanced over the past decade, industry is still dealing with many of the same issues today as it was when we launched our first issue.

A deeper dive into wireless standards tells a similar story. The technology has progressed, certainly. The concerns about reliability and security are not at the same levels they were 10 years ago, but users are still reluctant to put too much trust in wireless technologies.

When Dan Hebert, then technical editor, wrote a cover story on wireless industrial networks for our Fall 2002 issue, the message from the user community was clear: “Provide workable, supportable, non-proprietary solutions based primarily around wireless Ethernet and its 802.11b extension, and maybe even Bluetooth.” But wireless standards are still duking it out for market dominance.

A decade ago, as Hebert noted, reliability concerns were at the forefront in a society where cellphones failed 5–10% of the time and cordless phones still didn’t hold a candle to wired reliability. Today, however, many people have dropped their landlines altogether, relying almost entirely on their cellphones for their primary communication. But making wireless a more accepted standard for industrial control will require continued vigilance and development within the reliability realm.

Over the years, wireless networking has gone through its security ups and downs—what security guru Eric Byres in a series of columns beginning in Spring 2003 referred to as “the roller coaster ride of IEEE 802.11b Wireless Ethernet.” As Byres notes, when the specification was drafted, it was intended to provide a level of security similar to wired standards, which were relatively limited at the time.

Security continues to be a primary concern for industrial environments, but security has advanced. Today, both WirelessHART and ISA-100.11a standards provide network IDs in a secure environment before connecting the device to the wireless network.

For example, HART gateways and devices must have a physical connection to the network

(through a modem) in order to operate on the network. End-to-end sessions using AES-128 bit encryption ensure that messages can be deciphered only by the final destination.

After being approved earlier in 2011 as an ISAstandard, ISA-100.11a-2011 was approved in September by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as a publicly available specification (PAS), setting it on the road to more global acceptance.

The argument supporting the ISA wireless standard is that it was developed through an open-consensus process and accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). “From my perspective of 42 years as an end user in the refining and petrochemical industry, Iam especially proud that ISA-100.11a is the first industrial wireless standard developed in an open, accredited standards process with direct input and participation of experts from end-user companies,” said Herman Storey, ISA100 co-chair, in reference to the September IEC approval.

Even with increasing acceptance, wireless networking is unlikely to be accepted anytime soon for critical control applications. ISA-100.11a-2011 was developed for non-critical monitoring, alerting, supervisory control, open- and closed-loop control applications. The standard defines specifications for wireless connectivity for applications with low data rates and very limited power consumption requirements. Applications, such as monitoring and process control, should be able to tolerate latencies on the order of 100 ms.

The HART Communication Foundation, however, insists that—despite all the naysayers in publications, forums and blogs—laboratory tests with WirelessHART (which is also IEC-approved) contradict concerns about determinism, reliability and security. A technical note from the organization contends that control performance of a typical WirelessHART network is comparable to that of traditional wired fieldbuses. “The WirelessHART protocol allows for secure, highly reliable, low-latency control with almost no impact on the bandwidth and absolutely no impact on process performance.”

Nonetheless, even HART’s own director of technology programs, Ed Ladd, recommends sticking with non-critical control applications.

Wireless Standards Then and Now

8 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING Q2 2012

Profinet Gathers Momentum as Single NetworkALL THE TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE NEEDED for the manufacturing floor, but with the simplicity and easeof-use expected in an office network. Ethernet, including Profinet at the plant-floor level, can indeed do it all, agreed machine builders, users and system suppliers at the first Profinet Executive Leadership Forum, held in February.

For OEMs and end users who spoke at the Profinet Executive Leadership Forum, a single Ethernet network for all plant-floor needs isn’t just an elegant solution—it’s saving time and money now, and will make the “big data” applications of tomorrow possible.

“We use it for everything—it’s the only network we have on our lines today,” commented David Heyman, controls engineer for Kuka Assembly & Test, a tier one supplier of manufacturing systems for the automotive industry.

“We talked with Ford about what we could do to get rid of all these different networks,” Heyman said, noting that Profinet, which adds industrial performance to standard Ethernet at the physical layer, was a logical choice. “Profinet is as close to plug-and-play as we’ve seen. I only need one tool to see if everything is working. The fear of ‘What’s not working?’ [on machine startup] simply went away.”

At an increasing number of factories around the world, Profinet has flattened the entire discrete manufacturing network into a single layer, according to Bernie Anger, general manager, control and communications systems for GE Intelligent Platforms, which recently announced its own standardization on Profinet despite the company’s large installed base of proprietary bus technology.

“We adopted Profinet from a purely technical standpoint,” Anger said. “We see a future where all connections are Ethernet-based, including leverage of cloud technology for services delivery.”

The simplicity of Profinet is a major selling point for Alex Lynch, vice president of engineering for system integrator Prism Systems. “When you have an RJ-485 connector, you can’t get it wrong,” he said. “Simple is better. There is one connector for everything, and all those interfaces with special gateways just go away.”

The increased bandwidth that Ethernet provides also is a key advantage of top-to-bottom Profinet, Lynch said. “Innovation is what Profinet enables. It’s the means to transfer information—

not just data—from one device to another.”For David Wang, president and CEO of Beet

Analytics Technology, a company developing new technologies for predictive maintenance based on the increased availability of information, Ethernet and Profinet mean ease of design, ease of production support and other applications not yet foreseen. “You’ll see many more things than you could before,” he said. “With Ethernet, it will be possible.”

Bringing product design and manufacturing into a more concurrent lifecycle means large flows of data, and Profinet as the industrial Ethernet backbone from enterprise level to shop floor makes that possible, said Raj Batra, president of industry automation for Siemens Industry.

Strategic initiatives at Ford Motor’s power train manufacturing division all relate to standardization, flexibility and acceleration of new product launches, said Michael Bastian, controls manager. Standardizing on Profinet is helping the automaker in its efforts to distribute controls where possible to better manage the blurring lines of responsibility between the company’s controls and IT professionals, and to more easily implement integrated safety methodologies, Bastian said.

Other benefits for Ford include improved troubleshooting (enabled through standard IPaddressing at the machine level), simpler cabling systems and interlocks, documented savings in installation time and hardware costs, and improved network stability and reliability.

B&B Electronics (www.bb-elec.com), which develops wired and wireless connectivity technology, deepened its wireless solution portfolio with the acquisition of Conel(www.conel.cz), which makes wireless communications routers, gateways and devices that connect cellular networks to Ethernet, serial and other data networks. This follows soon after B&B’s acquisition of Quatech (www.quatech.com), whose products enable machine-to-machine communications in industrial environments.

Murata Electronics North America (www.murata-northamerica.com) signed a definitive agreement to acquire RF Monolithics (RFM, www.rfm.com) in an all-cash transaction. RFM provides wireless connectivity for a broad range of wireless applications—from individual, standardized and custom components to modules for comprehensive, industrial, wireless sensor networks and machine-to-machine (M2M) technology.

CAN in Automation (CiA, www.can-cia.org) celebrated its 20th anniversary during the 13th annual CAN Conference (iCC) in Hambach Castle, Germany. In recognition of the anniversary, CiA introduced the CAN-FD (flexible data-rate) protocol, a backward-compatible protocol that breaks the 1 Mbps data rate and allows longer payloads in a single frame.

PA C K E T S

Bits & Bytes

ALMOST PLUG-AND-PLAYKuka Assembly & Test standardized on Profinet because of its simplicity, according to David Heyman, controls engineer.

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PA C K E T S

OF ALL THE INDUSTRIAL NETWORKS THAT ROSE TO PROMINENCEat the end of the last century, CC-Link continues to gather momentum as Asia’s lead entry for factory automation. Since being developed by Mitsubishi and released to industry in 2000, membership in the protocol’s CC-Link Partner Assn. (CLPA) has grown from 126 Japanese companies to about 1,620 companies around the world, two-thirds outside Japan.

More than 9 million products using the CC-Link protocol have shipped, and suppliers stock about 1,208 models that speak the protocol, said Naomi Nakamura, global director of CLPA. “CC-Link has become a globally accepted standard,” she said, addressing a gathering in Las Vegas of protocol suppliers and users to mark the 10-year anniversary of CLPA’s establishment in North America.

CC-Link actually has evolved to describe a suite of protocol standards optimized for different applications. These include the original 10 Mbps CC-Link; CC-Link Safety, which provides high reliability for safety applications; and CC-Link/LT, which is optimized for sensors and small clusters of remote I/O. The “IE” in CC-Link IEField and CC-Link IE Control connotes the adaptation of the protocol to the 1 Gbps standard Ethernet physical layer.

Nakamura also announced the organization’s new “Gateway to China” program, designed to bring development and marketing support for automation system and component suppliers targeting the Chinese market, where the protocol is widely used. Technical developments in the works for the CC-Link family include system energy management, stronger development methodologies, and new CC-Link IE Field Motion functionality, which is optimized for multi-axis, coordinated motion control applications.

“The motion control function is supported by the addition of a clock synchronization function to the existing CC-Link IE Field industrial Ethernet stack,” explained Charles Lukasik, director of CLPA-Americas. “This permits the precise synchronized control of

multiple axes of motion on a single network.”Several OEMs and end users shared their experiences with CC-

Link at the event, stressing the network standard’s performance and stability advantages as well as ease of implementation. Simple connectivity and engineering tools make it easy to troubleshoot and diagnose problems, said Juan Carlos Dominguez of Nissan’s recently commissioned powertrain assembly plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico. “The 1 Gbps speed stabilizes the control interval, and provides high performance.”

For Robbins, which makes tunnel boring machines the length of a football field, CC-Link provides critical infrastructure for the digging of a new subway tunnel connecting New York’s Long Island to Manhattan. Strung for five miles of conveyor along with medium-voltage and “leaky feeder” cable (effectively a coaxial rf antenna used for radio communications along the length of the tunnel), CC-Link provides error-free control communications, including load balancing of the conveyor’s 400 hp variable-speed drives, said Chuck Masluk, a Mitsubishi application engineer closely involved with the project.

Key reasons for Robbins’ use of CC-Link include its high reliability and noise immunity, as well as long network lengths, easy implementation and simple termination, according to Masluk. “It provides a single network for PLC, HMI, I/O and VFDs—plus you can add new nodes without changing your PLC programming,” he said. “It just works.”

And for VC999, a manufacturer of vacuum packaging machine systems, CC-Link’s ability to run on Ethernet was a “cost-of-entry” capability, according to James Hofer, engineering manager for Motion Systems Group, a distributor that worked closely with VC999 in developing its i-Series next-generation machine. “Best-in-class was needed, and the ability of CC-Link IE Field to run at gigabit speeds helped win the project,” he said. “IE Field leapfrogged the competition.”

Drives Push Industrial Networking ExpansionWITH AN ESTIMATED 31 MILLION NEW FIELDBUS AND ETHERNETnodes installed last year, the global market for industrial networking remains strong, according to IMS Research (www.imsresearch.com), which predicts an average growth of 10% a year, reaching more than 45 million new connected nodes by 2015.

New connected nodes will grow fastest in servo and inverter drives in the Americas, and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), according to IMS’s latest industrial networking report. Their grow rate will be almost 12% a year, resulting in 3.5 million connected inverter drives and about 800,000 connected servo drives in 2015.

“These new network nodes will grow so fast because of the high growth in shipments of servo and inverter drives,” said Graham Brown, market analyst and author of the study. “Drive shipments are growing quickly in all regions, although the industry sectors creating this growth differ by drive type and region. The adoption of medium-

voltage drives, for example, is growing in the oil and gas industry; growth in shipments of servo drives is in the machine-tool industry.”

Although shipment growth is a key factor, IMS also sees a steady increase in the percentage of drives that are network-enabled and connected. The current focus on improving energy efficiency in factories is pushed mostly by its potential to reduce running costs, though it might also be legislated in coming years. Networked drives offer an effective means to improve overall factory efficiency; the number of new networked drives will likely increase by a substantial amount if such legislation is introduced.

Many more networked drives are forecast to be shipped in Asia-Pacific, partly because of many new greenfield projects. IMS projects about 4.3 million new servo and inverter drives networked in this region, equating to a growth rate of well over 15% a year, significantly above the world average rate.

10 Years On, CC-Link Marks U.S. Inroads

112012 Q2 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING 112012 Q2 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING

B U S S T O P

UNTIL A FEW YEARS AGO, ONE OF THE LARGESTrefineries on the continent kept its 1980-vintage DCS alive piece-by-piece and board-by-board. You sensed some pride from the group that was keeping the old system functioning reliably—we had sold them all the parts from a similar system we’d replaced decades ago.

I have to think these folks knew the system better than anyone back at the supplier company, which officially ceased to support its obsolete product years ago and had been going through rough financial times.

A few years ago, they began to install a present-generation system in its place, one full of Windows boxes and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)network hardware and third-party manufactured controls. Where were their old hands going to apply their highly developed skills?

I chat with our neighbor’s analyzer maintenance specialist every now and then on the subject of troubleshooting. Each of us has individuals in our organization who appear to have a knack for troubleshooting, and a number who need more help. I always ask him, “Don’t you think troubleshooting can be taught?” to which my neighbor flatly replies, “No.” That’s a little discouraging if you’re trying to develop an organization whose positions haven’t been filled on the basis of education, talent or ability. If gifted troubleshooters are born and not made, should maintenance supervisors just plan to be on call?

Strong troubleshooting skills can be application-specific, as well as physical or virtual (or both). I hope everyone has a gifted auto mechanic they trust, but some of those folks cease to be miracle-workers when faced with the heavily microprocessor-based and sensor-dependent machines of the past 20 years. Sometimes it seems easier to smash them into scrap than slog down the hard road of trial-and-error.

A significant portion of our everyday machines have followed the path of the automobile. Do you still have a corner TV repair shop? There’s not a lot of troubleshooting when the whole TV consists of one wave-soldered motherboard. Hobbyists can make some guesses like: “These are the cheapest and lousiest capacitors on the board, so I’ll start by replacing all of them.”

Such practitioners enjoy a measure of success,

but in the world of production-plant economies, it’s often cheaper to just get a new monitor and relegate the old one to the electronics-disposal bin. Even if we’re lucky enough to succeed 50% of the time, the labor costs can exceed the price of a new one, not to mention all the work that isn’t getting done while you and your reports are wicking up solder in the shop.

In today’s world, we’re replacing entire boards or even an entire computer or logic solver, in large part because they’ve become so modular and inexpensive. But Windows-based boxes have some issues. If you have a Windows PC that’s more than a few years old and it has a power supply problem, you could be surprised how hard it is to find one to replace it.

Even if you replace the entire PC, the new box probably has different memory, hard drives and optical drives with an entirely different interface (SATA), and potentially a new operating system. Have you tried to buy a copy of Windows XP lately? Commercial-off-the-shelf was great for quick, cheap solutions, but some of us failed to foresee how dicey it could be to maintain and service them. Neither repair and refurbish nor rip and replace offer a smooth path back to a functioning system.

Diagnostics. Have you heard enough about diagnostics lately? We’re getting a boatload of diagnostics from most of our microprocessor-based devices. How many times have you zipped up your Windows “Event” logs and sent them to your systems provider for analysis? Do you ever look at them?

The message here is that diagnostics are better than nothing, but more often than not they require extensive scrutiny by a thinking-brain human. Visionaries depict our smart devices writing their own work orders in CMMS or ERP systems. For me, this conjures visions of thousands of inscrutable work orders. Some grand evolution is needed before I can believe we won’t need gifted troubleshooters to make decisions about what’s really broken.

Although there’s a lot of rip and replace in our world today, we really can’t afford to send mind-numb robots out to simply swap out failed boxes. Thinking brains, we need you to get on your yoke and resume slogging to a solution.

Repair & Refurbish or Rip & Replace?

ALTHOUGH THERE’S

A LOT OF RIP AND

REPLACE IN OUR WORLD

TODAY, WE REALLY

CAN’T AFFORD TO SEND

MIND-NUMB ROBOTS

OUT TO SIMPLY SWAP

OUT FAILED BOXES.

JOHN [email protected]

he cloud has arrived for commercial and personal applications, and the benefits in those business spaces are real. Cloud use is already widespread in many corporate

functional areas and is becoming ever more present. A recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit and IBM indicates that 90% of corporate America expects to adopt the cloud in its organizations during the next three years. The uses include data storage, transfer of large data files like software downloads to customers, and web mail services such as Gmail.

Taking cloud use to another level, many companies outsourced entire functions such as customer relationship management, letting others provide this type of software as a service, typically accessed through a web browser.

Employees at industrial firms certainly are becoming familiar with the cloud through personal use. Companies involved in commercial enterprise, particularly those selling business-to-consumer, are using the cloud, and we’ll see that there are good reasons why.

Though the cloud is doing well in commercial and personal applications, industrial manufacturing users are few and far between. The challenges are significant for real-time, critical operations such as manufacturing.

IN CLOUD WE DON’T YET TRUSTPopular uses for the most part are not directly related to manufacturing. Leave it to an end user to get right to the heart of the matter: concerns about how cloud reliability and security could threaten manufacturing stability.

“Although cloud-based data storage might be beneficial for process automation systems, no one in a petroleum processing plant trusts its integrity due to its immaturity,” says Rick Hakimioun, senior instrument/electrical and control systems engineer at Paramount Petroleum (www.ppcla.com). “It took a while for us to trust the integrity of data from fieldbus instrumentation, and it will take a while for the cloud to catch on. I’m not against taking advantage of cloud-based data sharing for monitoring process control systems. But due to lack of a published standard practice developed by engineering society experts, I’m not sure about its utilization at this time. I say, in cloud we don’t trust, at least for now.”

Richard McCormick, automation engineer with system integrator Mick Automation in Levis, Quebec, has similar concerns. “My main concern would of course be linked to the security aspect of using the cloud,” he says. “There is absolutely no Internet connection allowed from the process control network DMZ at all of the places we work, so the standard cloud couldn’t be used.”

BY DAN HEBERT, PE, SENIOR TECHNICAL EDITOR

Let Somebody Else Handle the Data Flow? It’s Tempting, but Are the Controls and Safeguards Convincing Enough to Tie the Plant to Cloud-Based Services?

13 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING

MORE THAN HYPEAs with many new software and information system technologies, the hype surrounding the cloud is omnipresent and often overwhelming. But benefits are real. Virtually any service provided by the cloud also can be provided by in-house IT, so benefits of the cloud generally must be expressed by comparing them to the in-house IT alternative.

For example, data storage and backup often are provided in-house, but cloud providers often can do it cheaper and more reliably. Economies of scale let cloud providers store data for extremely low prices, most of these providers have elaborate data backup plans in place, and support is 24/7.

For many firms, the costs to buy software and pay renewal fees to maintain it are a significant expense. Paying a cloud provider for software-as-a-service (SaaS) is much cheaper, particularly when the full costs of IT personnel and infrastructure are factored in.

Deployment can also be quicker. SaaS applications can be put into use within hours, as opposed to weeks or even months for an in-house product that performs a similar function.

For remote data access, the cloud can provide many more paths than an in-house solution. If a plant stores its data in an on-premises server, all users must connect to this server for data access. If the data can be moved onto the cloud, multiple access paths are enabled, increasing reliability and access speed as remote user connections now can become local.

For vendors with a worldwide presence, the cloud can be the best way to distribute software. “Our company uses cloud-based products internally to provide services to our customers, such as downloads of our software

products,” says Marcia Gadbois, president of InduSoft (www.indusoft.com), a company that provides SCADA and HMI software to industrial firms. “Using a cloud provider allows our users to download from local servers wherever they are in the world, increasing download speeds through a reliable high-speed data connection. We use Amazon (www.amazon.com) and Rackspace (www.rackspace.com) to provide this service, and we’ve found both providers to be very reliable, providing the performance and uptime our customers need at very low cost to us.”

CAN MANUFACTURING BENEFIT?In terms of applications, it’s hard to envision any tasks directly associated with real-time control of manufacturing moving to the cloud. That won’t do a thing to lessen the concerns of the Hakimiouns and McCormicks out there. Instead, the cloud will perform tasks that support manufacturing, particularly data storage and remote access.

Manufacturing-related tasks will be performed in one of two methods. With one method, the cloud will be used to host a service provided to the manufacturer by a system integrator or an automation vendor. This service then will be sold to the manufacturer, typically on a monthly subscription basis. In the second method, manufacturers will run their own applications in the cloud, using hardware and other associated infrastructure provided by others.

For now, most applications are of the first variety, with end users purchasing remote access and other services from others for a monthly fee. For example, system integrator Vipond Controls (www.vipondcontrols.ca) in Calgary, Alberta, has developed a cloud-based SCADA.

E V A L U AT E

DATA FOR ALL

The system integration and IT services firm ECXSystems (www.trustecx.com) in Tyler, Texas, provides cloud-based remote access services to its industrial clients in a variety of industries. The firm owns and operates a cloud-based data center running VMware Cloud (www.vmware.com).

In an application under development, the data center will extract information from a controller, and make the data available to remote users. The ECXSystems customer is an OEM that will be building and selling skid-mounted systems, with each system automated with a SoftPLC controller.

The skid-mounted systems will be sold to small oil and gas companies that operate wells deemed no longer economically feasible and not currently operating. With these skid-mounted systems, the wells will become profitable to operate. The OEM will be charged a recurring fee for the remote access services—either monthly, quarterly or annually. The OEM can in turn provide this service to its clients.

“SoftPLC has a web service that runs under their architecture that provides near real-time access to all the control functions happening in the controller,” notes Keith Willis, president of ECXSystems. “The connection from its controller to the cloud in this case is via Ethernet, but cellular and Wi-Fi are available. The customer will be provided with a variety of methods to access these data, including smartphone apps. The smartphone HMI experience is provided via a custom iPhone/Android application written by our company using Appcelerator (www.appcelerator.com).”

For the OEM, remote access can be made available to each of its skids simply by providing a connection from the controller to the cloud. No other effort is required, either upfront or on a continuing basis. The capability to interface with the cloud is built into the controller, so no extra expense is incurred in terms of automation system components. The OEM can concentrate on building, installing and operating its skids, while leaving the IT-related task of remote access to ECXSystems.


“Critically for our customers, our solution eliminates the expense, time and manpower required to purchase, install and maintain local SCADA hardware and software at each site,” says Darryl Vipond, president. For more detail on this application, see “HMI in the Sky,” above.

ECXSystems (www.trustecx.com) in Tyler, Texas, is another system integrator and services fi rm providing cloud-based remote access, in this case via its own cloud-based data center that ECXSystems manages for its customers.

In a recently deployed application, its data center pulls information from SoftPLC (www.softplc.com) controllers, and makes this data available to remote users for a periodic fee. For more information, see “Data for All,” p13.

Most cloud-based industrial applications, including the two described above, don’t provide access to the controller, but this functionality will come soon. “We’re working with an OEM to design a cloud-based access and control system with automated two-way communications so in the event of an alarm, they could instruct the SoftPLC to correct the problem, if possible,” says Cindy Hollenbeck, vice president of SoftPLC.

Th is two-way access via the cloud will be signifi cant, says Erik Goode, technology leader for strategic manufacturing solutions at system integrator Maverick Technologies (www.mavtechglobal.com) in Columbia, Ill. “In some situations, the cloud will become part of the critical path between the end user making a decision and the control system receiving it,” he argues. “Th is controversial milestone will be as signifi cant as when control systems fi rst moved to non-proprietary networks.”

WHERE’S MY DATA?For many industrial companies, their data is precious—it could contain intellectual property that puts them ahead of their competitors. Using the cloud to store and distribute this data could make these companies nervous for a number of reasons.

For others, using the cloud in their production and manufacturing processes seems to add a layer of dependence on Internet connectivity and outside service suppliers that didn’t exist before, raising legitimate concerns about reliability.

In terms of data security, using a cloud provider is a double-edged

E V A L U AT E

HMI IN THE SKYVipond Controls (www.vipondcontrols. ca) is a system integrator in Calgary, Alberta. The company provides a cloud-based SCADA solution based on InduSoft’s (www.indusoft.com) Web Studio software to its customers in the oil and gas industry.

Rather than purchasing and installing SCADA software and hardware at each remote site, customers instead rely on Vipond.

A typical installation consists of one or more controllers and/or remote terminal units at a remote production site such as an oil well, explains Darryl Vipond, president of Vipond Controls. Each of these local devices is connected to the cloud-based iSCADA via radio, cellular or satellite connections. No SCADA hardware or software is required at the site as the iSCADA solution provides this functionality remotely.

Once the data is uploaded to the iSCADA application in the cloud, it’s available for remote access. “A key feature of iSCADA is the very fast response rates, which enable us to deliver a remote HMI experience in near real time,” Vipond says. “This remote viewing can be delivered through any web browser, a PC set up as a thin client, or a smartphone such as the iPhone and certain Android phones.”

Vipond adds, “Our SCADA solution creates a unique experience for each client. With iSCADA, each customer has its own virtual machine running within Vipond’s server cloud. All data is kept safe and independent of other machines running in the cloud.”

HypervisorHost 1

HypervisorHost 2Virtual Computing Environment

Client AVirtualiSCADASystem

Client CVirtualiSCADASystem

Client BVirtualiSCADASystem

Continuous Data Replication Between Hosts

If one host fails, the virtualmachines are started on the other host.

Internet

Firewall

Client Acan access

only the Client A iSCADA system

Client Bcan access only the

Client B iSCADAsystem

Client Ccan access

only the Client CiSCADA system

Vipo

nd C

ontr

ols

sword. On one hand, the cloud provider likely has much stronger security and encryption in place than a typical in-house IT department, with 24/7 support to foil any intruders.

On the other hand, there are many more hackers looking to earn street creds by breaking into the Amazon cloud vault as opposed to a typical industrial company. And the collective data in the Amazon cloud is worth much more than the data in a single industrial company, further increasing temptation.

Another major concern for many is near total dependency on the selected cloud provider, with this dependency increasing with the length of time the provider is used. For example, a company could rely on a cloud provider to store all of its key manufacturing data. Initial costs would be very low, but the selected provider would control the data and be free to raise prices at any time.

Switching to another provider would require cooperation from the cloud provider to transfer the data, and it’s questionable how forthcoming this cooperation would be, especially if asked to transfer data to a competitor. In the fi nancial services and telecommunications industry, regulations exist in the U.S. and other countries that

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WHY USE THE CLOUD INSTEAD OF IN-HOUSE IT?

1. Fewer IT personnel required2. Less software to buy and maintain3. Faster deployment of new applications4. Higher-speed downloads5. More secure data storage and backup6. More paths for uploads and access7. 24/7 maintenance services8. More comprehensive security

CLOUD CONCERNS1. Security of data2. More hackers3. Near total dependence on cloud

provider4. Cloud connection not always reliable5. Cloud connection lacks determinism


require transfer of money and/or data from one provider to another. But no such regulations exist in the cloud yet, increasing dependence on the vendor, and with it the risk to the cloud user.

There are ways to mitigate these risks, albeit with some cost and inconvenience to the user. “Many cloud firms will provide backups to ensure user data is redundantly secure, and it’s industry protocol for cloud providers to contractually ensure user data is always available, regardless of what happens to the provider,” notes Siamak Farah, CEO of InfoStreet (www.infostreet.com), a cloud software provider.

Finally, many industrial users are concerned with replacing dependency on an in-house corporate network with dependency on an Internet connection. For example, a company could use the cloud to store and provide access to data, both to in-plant and remote personnel. If the connection from the plant to the cloud were to be lost, then so would the access.

Alternate access paths can be provided from the plant to the cloud, and from the cloud to each user, but at least one of the paths from the plant to the cloud would have to be up and running. For many, an in-plant communications network is perceived as more reliable than any practical number of cloud connections.

BACK ON THE PLANT FLOOR…The only way McCormick can envision something similar for automation would be through a dedicated and very secure link to

a vendor-specific site for remote vendor applications. “But again, it would be very hard to guarantee 100% security at all times, and that means the plant system not being affected by anything bad happening at the vendor site,” he cautions. “And imagine using many links like this for different vendors, which would be a nightmare to maintain security in all cases.”

An end user at a water utility says he would consider using the cloud for data storage, but voices his concerns when it comes to other areas. “Hosting actual applications remotely vs. just storing data is a concern for automation/real-time control where applications need to be running as part of a plant or treatment facility,” explains Dave Mazzarella, PE, senior electrical engineer at Irvine Ranch Water District (www.irwd.com) in California. “The link to remote servers could be lost, but the plant still needs to operate. The cloud adds a failure mode that doesn’t exist in our current systems.”

THE KILLER APPSRemote access appears to be at least one of the killer apps for the cloud in terms of functionality. But what will convince end users like Hakimioun, McCormick and Mazzarella to use and trust the cloud for this and other applications?

“If one of our DCS vendors—Emerson or Honeywell—offered cloud-based data storage and access, we would consider it,” Hakimioun says. “These vendors perform lots of testing to ensure the integrity of their systems meets our requirements.”

The Talk2M service from eWon (www.ewon.us) uses virtual private networks (VPNs) and tunneling to provide remote access, notes Francis Vanderghinst, sales manager. “Talk2M accepts connections from users as well as their machines, so both parties can exchange data using this technology,” he says. “The end connection to the machine is in reality made through an eWon industrial router that connects to the heart of this machine, the controller. The only requirement is that the eWon router should be connected to the customer LAN, and it should be possible to browse on the web from this LAN.”

Asset management could be another killer app, and it appears to be particularly well-suited to the cloud. A manufacturer would only have to provide a high-speed, two-way data connection to the control and information system, and the vendor could immediately begin to collect and analyze data. Once this data was analyzed, the vendor could provide specific recommendations for improving asset utilization. This service could be provided for a monthly fee on a relatively short-term basis, reducing risk and encouraging use.

All manufacturers want to improve asset utilization, and vendors promise this and other benefits to those who buy and install their asset management software. But with in-house deployment, the manufacturer must first invest large sums in software, servers, networks, and IT and asset management experts.

Buying asset management through SaaS models could allow virtually instant deployment with very low upfront costs, allowing manufacturers to try the service and assess benefits with very low risk.

E V A L U AT E

ARC

Advi

sory

Gro

up

CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODELSMoving applications to the cloud from in-house can be accomplished by purchasing hosting services for a user application, or by purchasing the software as a service.

O/S O/S

O/S O/S

App App

Lease

License Hosted

Cloud/SaaS

Leased app runs onlocal hardware

Licensed app runson local hardware

Licensed app runs on externalhardware; managed by thirdparty per user’s direction

SaaS app runs on external hardware; configured and

managed by third party at theirdiscretion; often multi-tenant

App AppOwne

rshi

p

Technology Hosting

Rent

Own

Internal External


PRACTICALLY ALL FIELDBUS PROTOCOLS TAKE A “BLACK channel” approach to their safety bus. However, defining a black channel is all but a black channel itself, in that, though everyone talks about it and uses it, finding a description of black channel is a search in the dark.

The name black channel comes from the concept of a black box. The intent of both a black box and black channel is that what goes in one end does not see anything between the inlet and outlet as it passes through the device. The difference between the two concepts is that, rather than a black box piece of hardware, it is the network itself that must appear to not be there. The bus system, therefore, does not perform any safety-related tasks but only serves as transmission medium.

If the various safety bus protocols followed a white-channel scheme, this would require that the bus networking and protocol be designed from the ground up for safety. That means all the network components must be safety-related and need the associated approvals. Network components include—in addition to the end devices or nodes themselves and the logic solver—the interface converters, attachments and couplers, repeaters, safety barriers, bridges, hubs, switches and routers.

The black-channel concept uses a non-trusted transmission system; the network gear is not safety-related. As a result, the primary advantage of the black-channel concept is we can reuse regular network hardware for safety networks without having to modify more than the devices or nodes themselves.

No changes to any of the Physical Layers means the safety measures must be added as a safety layer on top of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol Layer 7, thus increasing the size of that layer. The new layer is responsible for the transport of safety-relevant data. The remainder of the application layer is responsible for acquisition and processing of user or process data.

As shown in Figure 1, the black channel uses a safety layer between the communication stack and application as per IEC 62280-1. This concept originated from railway signaling technology. The safety layer performs safety-related transmission functions and checks on the communication to ensure the integrity of the link meets the requirement for SIL 3 continuous/high-demand mode. Though unlikely to be done, it is possible to use the black-channel concept with some non-safety-related devices sitting on the same bus and sharing the communication media. So, if someone accidentally connects a non-safety device to the safety bus, it will not negatively impact safety operation.

D E S I G N

A BLACK CHANNEL TAKES A PATH THROUGH THE NETWORK THAT ‘DIDN’T SEE A THING’

The Hidden Safety Network

BY IAN VERHAPPEN, INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION NETWORKS

Measure

ErrorConsecutive Number

(sign of life)Time-out (with

acknowledgement)Codename (for sender

and receiver)Data Integrity (CRC)

Repetition X

Loss X X

Insertion X X X

Incorrect Sequence X

Data Corruption X

Delay X

Masquerade (standard message mimics fail safe)

X X X

FIFO errors in intermediate routers Xa

a No acknowledgement from routers (lower levels of OSI Model)

Table I. From The Industrial Communication Technology Handbook, Richard Zurawski, CRC Press 2005, pp. 28-1–28-19.


To comply with the relevant safety standards, a safety-bus frame must be passed completely unmodifi ed from a safety sender to a safety receiver no matter what kind of transmission system both nodes use. Th us, the safety measures are encapsulated in the communicating end nodes/devices as shown in Figure 2.

Th is means that none of the error-detection mechanisms of the chosen communication technology are taken into account to guarantee the integrity of the

transferred process data. Basically, there are no restrictions on transmission rate, number of bus devices or transmission technology—as long as the given safety application reaction times can tolerate the additional overhead parameters.

Detecting corrupted data bits through an additional cyclic redundancy check (CRC) plays a key role in meeting safety bus reliability requirements. Th e necessary probabilistic examination can benefi t from the defi nitions within IEC 61508 that

consider the probability of failure of the entire safety function. Because a safety circuit includes all sensors, actuators, transfer elements (this is the safety bus) and logic processes that are involved in the safety function, and IEC 61508 defi nes overall values for the probability of failure of the system for diff erent safety integrity levels, then some fraction—typically 1–2%—of the overall SIL rating is assigned to the transfer element, which is the network equipment or black channel. For SIL 3, the probability of failure is 10-7/hr. If transmission uses 1% of the permissible probability of failure, the probability failure rate for the safety bus system must be 10-9/hr. By selecting appropriate CRC polynomials for the intended frame length, the resulting residual error probabilities of the undetected corrupt data packets is guaranteed to meet or exceed the required limits. We are no longer depending on the basic error detection of the standard fi eldbus protocol (white channel) because we have added the supplemental checks shown in Table I on the system communications to identify the sources of transmission errors on the network.

Th e measures in Table I indicated in the appropriate columns, other than CRC for data integrity, check for a range of other types of communication errors that can arise during transmission of a message between any two points. Each of these measures as implied by the short explanation in brackets provides the following benefi t and increase in confi dence of the reliability of the transmitted information:

the message transmitted is received and reassembled in the proper sequence is important, especially for messages that have the option of more than one route (such as with Ethernet) to get from point A to B.

form of acknowledgement mechanism. However, the majority of the industrial Ethernet protocols use User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which does not support message acknowledgement. Th erefore, an independent, dedicated tool must be used.

Design toIEC 61508

Design toIEC 61508

BlackChannel

Additional ErrorDetection Logic{

{{

THE SAFETY CAPSULEFigure 2.The safety measures are encapsulated in the communicating end nodes/devices as shown.

AN ADDED LAYER OF SAFETYFigure 1. The black channel uses a safety layer between the communication stack and the application.

TRANSPORT LAYER

SESSION LAYER

PRESENTATION LAYER

APPLICATION LAYER

PHYSICAL LAYER

DATA LINK LAYER

NETWORK LAYER

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

* The user layer is not defined by the OSI Model

H1 PHYSICAL LAYER

DATA LINK LAYER

FIELDBUS ACCESSSUBLAYER

FIELDBUS MESSAGESPECIFICATION

USERLAYER

IEC 61158 - PHY

IEC 61158 - FMSIEC 61158 - FASIEC 61158 - DLL

IEC 61804-2

No Change to H1Communication

Same EDDLas H1

SISExtensions

OSI Model* H1 FOUNDATION Fieldbus Model

IEC 61508

}

}

}

Control

Reference:The Industrial Communication Technology Handbook, Richard Zurawski, CRC Press 2005, p28-1–28-19 (“Chapter 28: Safety Technology With Profibus,” by Wolfgang Stripf and Herbert Barthel) Print ISBN: 978-0-8493-3077-3.

D E S I G N

(with a little help from ProSoft)

Airfi eld Goes Wireless

Where Automation Connects.™

+1-661-716-5100To read the whole story, visit: : www.prosoft-technology.com/airfi eld

Liberty Airport Systems chose ProSoft’s industrial Ethernet radios to keep the lights that guide you home... always on.

A S I A PA C I F I C | A F R I C A | E U R O P E | M I D D L E E A S T | L AT I N A M E R I C A | N O R T H A M E R I C A

A SAFETY LAYER PROVIDES

THE ADVANTAGE OF EASY AND

FAST IMPLEMENTATION, AND

ALLOWS SAFETY MARGINS

TO BE IDEALLY DIMENSIONED

AND MACHINE CLOCK RATES

TO BE INCREASED TO MEET THE

OVERALL SYSTEM SAFETY/SIL

REQUIREMENTS.

20 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING Q2 201220 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING Q2 201220

PA R I T Y C H E C K

Get Your Industrial Network Right

MY EXPERIENCE

AND THAT OF OTHER

FOUNDATION FIELDBUS

INSTRUCTORS IN THE

CONTROLLED SETTING

OF A CLASSROOM OR

PANEL SHOP IS THAT

AT LEAST 25% OF

TERMINALS ARE NOT AT

THE PROPER TORQUE.

IAN VERHAPPENiverhappen@

industrialautomationnetworks.com

THE PARETO PRINCIPLE OR 80:20 RULE, WHICH in its simplest form states 80% of the problems come from 20% of the population (or less), applies to industrial networks. Experience has shown that 80% of the network problems relate to the physical layer—the wires, fiber, frequency, connectors, power supplies, etc., on which the signals are transmitted.

The good news is that once you get the physical problems resolved, typically during commissioning and startup, the system should run with minimal disruption until something is changed.

As with any installation, the potential for problems can begin with the design itself, so follow good engineering practices such as proper tray and cable spacing as described in IEC 61000-5-2:1997, Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC), Part 5: Installation and Mitigation Guidelines. Section 2, Earthing (Grounding in North America) and Cabling, provides guidance by assigning classes to different types of cables based on the energy levels they contain, and recommending spacing to prevent noise in one system affecting others.

All twisted-pair field cable, whether used for HART or another bus, at a minimum, should be individually shielded, twisted-pair. The HARTCommunications Foundation has this as a base recommendation, as do all the digital process buses. Twisting and shielding provide protection against EMI and RFI; however, this protection can be lost by installing cable with a bend radius tighter than the manufacturer’s specified minimum. Bending cable too tightly can cause the twists to separate, reducing EMI protection. In fiber, it introduces stresses in the cable, affecting the refractive index.

The next step is to be sure the cable is terminated correctly. This starts by selecting the right type of terminal and connector. There are a number of options, though the most common termination is still the screw terminal. However, when using screw terminals, be sure they are tightened correctly; the best way to do that is with a torque screwdriver. My experience and that of other Foundation fieldbus instructors in the controlled setting of a classroom or panel shop is that at least 25% of terminals are not at the proper torque. In many cases, I have found 100% failure rates. Unfortunately, this is very hard to check when troubleshooting, or often is overlooked as a possible cause. The consequence of improper

torque is that in the presence of vibration the connection likely will loosen over time.

For wired Ethernet, especially RJ45 connections, the weakest links are the fingers used to make the female side of the connection. These thin wires act as both conductor and contact spring to the male jack. The majority of the force to make this connection comes from a fragile plastic lever on the reverse side of the male component. All of us have had at least one occasion in which the plastic connector has broken and caused intermittent network connectivity. Fortunately, many manufacturers now make connectors with more rugged jacks that include metal levers/springs to provide better contact, even in industrial vibration conditions.

Wireless or frequency communications have several challenges that need to be verified—not just once via a walkthrough site survey, but over time to accommodate changes in the operating plant such as vehicular traffic, weather conditions, and the turning on and off of paralleled equipment. With the increased reliance on the 2.4 GHz band for so many different technologies, facilities will have to start managing spectrum to control congestion within their facility boundaries to ensure that someone’s cell phone does not cause a dropped control node.

Now that you have the medium to transmit the signal, you also require the power to make everything work. In most cases, isolated power is the better way since, as the name implies, the output power is isolated from the source, so there is a level of separation between the two parts of the equipment. Though not perfect, it does help reduce the transmission of noise. This is becoming ever-more important with the increasing use of electronic signal conditioners that generate a signal as a series of sine waves or digital step changes.

If you want to easily check the effect of noise on a network, take measurements of your system with and without your laptop connected to the ac power. PC power supplies are very noisy, so if you use them to capture baseline plant data or troubleshoot a small disturbance, be sure to run on battery.

Ian Verhappen is an ISA Fellow, recognized authority on industrial communications technologies, and principal at Industrial Automation Networks.

212012 Q2 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING 212012 Q2 INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING

R E S E A R C H

TOUGH WIRESIndustrial-grade DataTuff Cat. 6 cord sets for Gigabit industrial Ethernet needs come with RJ45 plugs, available in shielded and unshielded versions suitable for IP20 or IP67 applications, or with ruggedized metal body RJ45, and handle -40 to 70 °C.Belden; 800/235-3361; www.belden.com

MAKE A REMOTE CONNECTION8CVE remote connection box has IP65 protection, and comes with four hybrid cable outlets, allowing the power to be divided between up to four line structures of Acoposmulti65 8CVI inverters; and the connections necessary for Safe Torque Off (STO) signals are included. It has two local I/O connections.B&R Industrial Automation; 770/772-0400; www.br-automation.com

ETHERNET ANYWHEREVlinx VESP211 small-form-factor serial servers connect serial devices to Ethernet networks. VESP211 supports RS-232/422/485 (MEI) with a DB9M serial port and RJ45 Ethernet port. VESP211-232 supports RS-232 with a DB9M serial port and RJ45 Ethernet port. VESP211-485 supports RS-422/485 with a removable

terminal block and RJ45 Ethernet port.B&B Electronics; 800/346-3119; www.bb-elec.com

DEVICE CONNECT EtherNet/IP Communications Auxiliary enables DeviceNet-based components to connect to an EtherNet/IP network. Users can access the status of any DeviceNet device in the network from a PC or PLC.Rockwell Automation; 414/382-2000; www.rockwellautomation.com

FROM SERIAL TO ETHERNETAvailable with one to 16 ports, SeaLink Ethernet serial servers connect RS-232, RS-422 and RS-485 serial devices to your Ethernet network and use TCP/IP, enabling any host to access serial ports as virtual COM ports.Sealevel Systems; 864/843-4343; www.sealevel.com

CONNECT WITH PROFESSIONALSProfessional RJ45 connectors for either eight-pin Cat. 5e or four-pin Cat. 6A are available in straight and angled designs, and have a 45° angle for multiple connections in tight spaces.Murrelektronik; 770/497-9292; www.murrinc.com

MORE CUSTOMIZED MACHINES AND MACHINE-MOUNT I/O LEAD TO A CALL FOR

INCREASINGLY INTELLIGENT CONNECTION AND CABLING SOLUTIONS

Smarter, Simpler Connections

SOLUTIONS FOR MAKING MACHINES RUN LEANER, SMARTERand cheaper come in all shapes and sizes, and connection products can play a significant role in this endeavor. “Everybody wants to reduce cost, and cabling’s a big part of that,” notes Robert Muehlfellner, director, automation technologies, for B&R Automation (www.br-automation.com).

Muehlfellner sees a trend within machinery that calls for more modularization as end users demand more options and more customization. “Along with this, there are trends toward decentralization of the electrical components, and more machine-mount I/Os and drives,” he says. “Intelligent connection and cabling

technology plays a more prominent role than it did in the past.”Passive distribution blocks are also resurging, according to Aaron

Henry, marketing manager at Murrelektronik (www.murrinc.com). They are similar to machine-mount I/O devices, he explains, because they refrain from active communications and have simple, homerun wiring to I/O cabinets. “Many machine builders in U.S. markets are constructing progressively smaller machines with smaller I/O counts, but they still want to build them faster, and so they’re using more passive distribution blocks,” he says. “These allow easier troubleshooting and reduce wiring without having to justify and implement a full-blown fieldbus.”


SIMPLIFY PANELSSmartWire-DT panel wiring system connects motor control components with a single cable over EtherNet/IP, Modbus TCP, Profibus-DP and CANopen. It uses an eight-conductor, flat cable in the control cabinet to connect motor starters, pushbutton actuators and indicator lights.Eaton; 414/449-6555; www.eaton.com

SOCKET TO ME 756 Series M12 socket Ethernet adapter helps integrate machine-mount IP67 components with IP20 controls. Tool-free terminations with D-Coded M12 Adapter have a traditional cable-based RJ45 Ethernet socket that routes data through a screw-locking M12 connector.Wago; 800/346-7245; www.wago.com

PATCH IT UP Industrial Ethernet RJ45 patch cables are available for EtherCAT, SERCOS III and Profinet protocols in 0.3, 1 and 2 m lengths. Options include straight or angled configurations that meet IP20 protection requirements.Phoenix Contact; 800/322-3225; www.phoenixcontact.com

TIME TO SPLIT G10 AS-Interface accessories include IP69K washdown-rated splitters and network terminators that feature Connect & Done technology to eliminate mounting requirements in many applications and simplify mounting in others. Standard flat cable connection for both AS-Interface and auxiliary power includes two M12 round cable connections, so two devices can be split off from one accessory.Pepperl+Fuchs; 330/486-0001; www.pepperl-fuchs.us

CLEAR GATEWAYEKI-1221D and EKI-1222D gateways provide transparent connectivity between Modbus (ASCII, RTU) serial devices and Ethernet-based Modbus TCP equipment. They have built-in Ethernet switches for cascading/daisy-chain connectivity and support Ethernet auto-bypass to

prevent accidental power failure if one of the Modbus gateways unexpectedly shuts down. They come with Windows utilities and web-based configuration.Advantech Industrial Automation; 800/205-7940; www.advantech.com

PATCH THATCat. 5e straight and crossover Ethernet patch cables in eight colors and 3-50 ft lengths support up to 1,000 Mbps and are designed to reduce the effects of electromagnetic interference by using one metal-foil shield that wraps around the set of four twisted, shielded pairs and shielded RJ45 connectors. The 350 MHz cables exceed all Cat. 5e TIA/EIA standards, and reduce impedance and structural return loss (SRL) compared with standard 100 MHz cables.AutomationDirect; 770/889-2858; www.automationdirect.com/ethernet

POWER DISTRIBUTIONIEC terminal blocks include a screw-clamp, 80 A power distribution block for up to three wires in, four wires out; are available for either base mounting or DIN rail mounting; and are rated 600 V. Housing is a molded polyamide 6.6 thermoplastic, and offers funneled wiring entry with finger-safe IP20 terminals. It’s UL-listed, CE-certified and RoHS-compliant.c3controls; 724/775-7926; www.c3controls.com

GIGABIT ETHERNETCat. 6e field-installable RJ45 connector provides IDC termination up to eight poles. The design can accommodate conductors AWG 27 to 22 and cable outer diameters of 4.5–9 mm in both stranded and solid cables. Other features include tool-free assembly with captive wire manager and clear wire map, and multi-port capability.Harting; 847/717-9242; www.harting.com

FIT FOR WATERMini-Fit H2O weatherproof, compact connection system is designed for wire-to-wire applications to 9.0 A per circuit. IP67-rated, it consists of plug and receptacle assemblies and male and female crimp terminals. The plug and receptacle assemblies have a pre-installed interface and wire seals, for a lower applied


cost compared with connectors with manually installed seals. It is suited to tight-space applications.Molex; 800/786-6539; www.molex.com

QUICK CUSTOMITC/PLTC cables offer exposed-run instrumentation and control wiring for factory-floor automation equipment, material handling, sensors and transducers, process controls and other applications. The cables eliminate the need for conduit in most installations and reduce material and installation costs. They are UL-listed and approved for wet and Class 1, Div. 2 hazardous areas. Custom cable is shipped in five days or less with no minimum length or quantity.Northwire; 800/468-1516; www.northwire.com

FOR THERMOCOUPLES ONLYDRTB thermocouple terminal blocks come in type K, J, T, E, N, R/S and U calibrations, equipped with a built-in miniature female thermocouple connector for auditing and troubleshooting. The device is DIN-rail-mountable and audit-capable, and is manufactured with thermocouple-grade alloys to guarantee accurate readings.Omega Engineering; 203/359-1660; www.omega.com

ON-SITE CONNECTIONSCat. 6 RJ45 field-wireable connectors extend an Ethernet cable in on-site assembly with no special tools for up to 10 Gbps networks. A color-coded adapter and an Ethernet connector integrate three strain relief settings suitable for cable diameters of 5–9 mm, and are shielded to protect the cable from EMC interference.Turck; 800/544-7769; www.turck.us

CLEAN RATINGRated for Class 1 cleanrooms, standard and custom high-flex silicone flat cables are halogen-free, don’t shed surface particulates, and are water- and chemical-resistant. Custom cables can incorporate power conductors, shielded signal pairs, video and coax conductors, tubing for air or fluid transfer, and fastening strip in a single cable design. Cicoil; 661/295-1295; www.cicoil.com

TOUGH CONNECTIONIn shielded and UTP configurations, Cat. 5e Industrial Max patch cords have flame-retardant thermoplastic elastomer (FR-TPE), polyurethane (PUR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) cable jacket options. The patch cords and outlets have Cat. 5e RJ45 connectivity encased in a protective outer housing made of heat-resistant thermoplastic with a bayonet-style mating design that latches with a quick ¼ turn. Both outlet and patch cord are IP67-rated.Siemon; 860/945-4380; www.siemon.com/go/industrial

BACK-TO-BACKASIUK5Return terminal block can be mounted almost directly up against the side of the panel or equipment wall or in a double-row configuration with the backs of the terminal blocks against each other. It is 6.2 mm wide and has a rating of 30 A at 300 V with a wiring capacity of 30 to 10 AWG. The housing is molded with a UL94V0 material, and the metal bodies are a nickel-plated copper alloy.Automation Systems Interconnect; 877/650-5160; www.asi-ez.com

CABLE CATALOG Industrial Cable Catalog features more than 160 pages of portable cord, industrial power cables, instrumentation cables, tray cables and lead wire. In addition, this catalog contains the majority of standard industrial products and custom cable capabilities, including green energy and emerging markets, and an enhanced technical section.Coleman Cable; 800/323-9355; www.colemancable.com

BUS TERMINALS HD bus terminals have 16 digital I/O channels in the housing of a 12 mm electronic terminal block. Using Beckhoff bus couplers or DIN-rail-mounted controllers, the terminals are compatible with almost every major fieldbus. The terminals come in Beckhoff bus and EtherCAT versions, and are available as 16-channel terminals for digital inputs or outputs; as eight-channel terminals for digital inputs or outputs with two-wire connection; or as combination terminals with eight digital inputs and eight digital outputs.Beckhoff Automation; 952/890-0000; www.beckhoff.com/hd-busterminal

R E S E A R C H


B A N D W I D T H

24

FIBEROPTICS ARE LONGSTANDING AND amazing technologies, but what have they done for us lately? It’s well known that fiberoptics can aid long-distance networking applications and that they’re unaffected by electromagnetic fields (EMFs), but is that the end of the story? Not hardly.

“Fiber is fast, so it’s mostly been used as a communications media,” says Tracy Lenz, senior product support for Wago’s (www.wago.com) I/O Systems and Advanced Electronics. “However, variable-frequency drives produce lots of electrical noise, and because their use is increasing, demand for fiberoptics for VFDs is growing, too.”

Fiber is strong enough to go from switch to switch, so it’s used in networks to go from supervisory domains, through IT router/server rooms, and onto other domains or router cabinets on plant floors, Lenz says. “Fiber is growing as a transition media between large clusters of Ethernet components and sub-networks because of its high bandwidth and long-run, no-noise capabilities,” he says. “Fiber also shines in some mid-level and advanced switches with Xpress ring or Jet ring features in which data moves from copper to fiber. If Ethernet can’t go far enough or wireless can’t go where you want, then fiber probably can do it.”

The expansion of Ethernet for mission-critical control applications brings with it the need for greater bandwidth requirements, according to Frank Koditek, product line manager, industrial cables, Belden Americas (www.belden.com). “So there’s increasing demand for Cat. 6 cabling along with fiberoptic solutions that will improve performance,” he says. “Users are demanding maximum network availability, even where the environment would cause damage and failure to standard networking products.”

As a result, Belden’s Hirschmann and GarrettCom brands are integrating fiberoptic capabilities into every managed, unmanaged, DIN-rail-mounted and 19 in. rack-mounted switch they produce, reports Sven Burkhard, field solutions manager for Hirschmann. “Traditionally, media converters moved data from copper to fiber, but they didn’t leave room for added ports,” he says. “Now we have Ethernet switches with eight or 16 ports, including one, two or more fiber ports, and people are realizing they can use fiber ports like any other port. We’ve had fiber in our portfolio

for 14 years, and it was Hirschmann that made the first fiber-Ethernet ring, but its use is increasing exponentially now. Users were already creating fiber backbones, but now they’re getting fiber down to the plant floors and PLCs. It’s still more costly, but fiberoptics is no longer a black magic, voodoo light carrier, and really is something that the average technical person can implement.”

For example, Belden’s two-year-old Brilliance fiberoptic connectors are pre-polished and can be connected in about a minute, and its two grades of Tactical fiberoptic cable include a moderately flexible version and a MaxiBend highly flexible version made from glass fiber aided by a dopant additive.

Likewise, Beckhoff Automation (www.beckhoff.com) reports that fiberoptics’ original advantages also make it useful in many wind-energy and other renewable applications. “Profibus, EtherCAT,Interbus, SERCOS and Lightbus protocols all have some fiberoptic components, so they’ll be immune to EMFs and can go into high-noise areas such as grain elevators, ship-loading and mining applications,” says Kurt Wadowick, Beckhoff’s I/O specialist. “And, in the past five years, we’re seeing a lot of our Lightbus couplers going into wind towers.” These include plastic fiber couplers (Lightbus) and glass fiber couplers (EtherCAT).Wadowick adds that plastic fiber terminations are easier to sand and connect, but have only enough internal reflectivity to go about 50 m. Glass fiber connections are harder to polish, but can go 20,000 m in single-mode and 2,000 m in multi-mode.

“Fortunately, glass fiber is a lot better protected now, and has Kevlar coatings and plastic jackets, which allow it to stand up to dirt, chemicals, high temperatures, and other nasty environments,” Wadowick adds. “Fiberoptics have become true industrial components. The only question is: Can users cut fiberoptic cabling and properly treat the connections? But even that challenge is met by pre-made components from many suppliers.

“Fiberoptics are still more expensive, complex and labor-intensive than copper, but distance and noise requirements can trump those costs. Also, better splicing and connections are bringing costs down; better-designed LED and laser transceivers are aiding speed and distance capabilities; and improved reflectivity and durability are making fiberoptics even more usable.”

Fiberoptics Extend Ethernet’s Empire

“FIBEROPTICS IS NO

LONGER A BLACK

MAGIC, VOODOO

LIGHT CARRIER, AND

REALLY IS SOMETHING

THAT THE AVERAGE

TECHNICAL PERSON CAN

IMPLEMENT.”

JIM MONTAGUEEXECUTIVE EDITOR

[email protected]

ETHERNET WLANIndustrial Ethernet WLAN wireless modem is IEEE 802.11a/b/g-compatible in 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands, and it can be used as an access point, bridge or client. Power can be supplied using Power over Ethernet (PoE) or with the redundant power supply connections. WPA/WPA2 encryption and Radius server authentication (IEEE 802.1X) prevent unauthorized access.Weidmüller; 800/849-9343; www.weidmuller.com

EMBEDDED BACNETAnybus CompactCom network communication module for BACnet/IP can be embedded into air conditioning equipment, pumps, etc. The module acts as a server (B-ASC) on BACnet/IP, and the onboard two-port switch provides two 100 Mbps full-duplex Ethernet interfaces with RJ45 connectors.HMS Networks; 312/829-0601; www.anybus.com

FLEX YOUR TOUGHNESSToughFlex industrial Ethernet cable has 26 AWG conductors, with an inner TPE belt and an overall polyurethane jacket. It is manufactured with a 90% braid shield to resist environmental noise interference, and is compliant with Cat. 5e electrical performance specifications to a distance of 65 m.C&M; 860/774-4812; www.cmcorporation.com

INTERNET TEMPERATURES iSD-TC provides web-based temperature monitoring in critical equipment and locations. The device accepts two thermocouple inputs (types J, K, T, E, R, S, B, C, N, L) and triggers an alarm if temperature goes below or above set point, which can be sent by email. iServer technology requires no special software except a web browser.Omega Engineering; 800/tc-omega; www.omega.com

CONNECT FLEXIBLY ESG Flexible Power and Data Bus System eliminates junction boxes, splices and home run wiring. Family of multi-conductor flat cables with five to seven conductors, and individual conductors ranging 16 to 6 AWG. Cables are PVC, polyethylene or halogen-free sheaths. IP65-rated power connection boxes are rated 1–76 A, and use Insulation Displacement Connection (IDC) technology.Electrotech; 215/997-8855; www.esgllc-usa.com

BETTER BENDINGChainflex continuous-flex data cables with designs for smaller machine spaces have a smaller bending radius for flexing applications of 6.8 times diameter for type CF11, and 7.5 times diameter for type CF211. The stability of the copper shield and stranded conductor delivers reliable data transmissions, even with the smaller bending radius.Igus; 800/521-2747; www.igus.com


P R O D U C T S 25

AD INDEX Advantech ......................................................................... 9

AutomationDirect .......................................................... 2

Hilscher North America ................................................ 6

Moxa Americas ................................................................ 4

ProSoft Technology......................................................19

Questex Media Group ................................................... 3

Sealevel Systems...........................................................15

Siemens Industry ..........................................................27

Transition Networks.....................................................28

CONTACT US555 W. Pierce Rd., Suite 301, Itasca, Illinois 60143

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EDITORIAL TEAM Editor In Chief Joe Feeley Executive Editor Jim Montague Managing Editor Aaron Hand Digital Managing Editor Katherine Bonfante Digital Associate Editor Sarah Cechowski

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REPRINTSFoster Reprints

THE ETHERNET BOOM IS ON. OPEN SYSTEMSare all the rage, and interoperability of different manufacturers’ products certainly sounds great.

We can see why open systems and Ethernet are so appealing. Open systems theoretically allow us to get all the best products, at the best prices, and put them together for the best solution. Ethernet is the cost-effective communications protocol that can do it all, right?

But let’s remember that a control system’s primary objective is to run the process as ef-ficiently as possible with the highest degree of reliability and serviceability, while providing a safe working environment for all those affected by the machine.

My company recently implemented a control system for a $38 million project that included several multi-station machining centers. At each machining center, the station controller is con-nected to the master controller via Ethernet. In addition to performing basic process control, the master station also controls the positioning of the fixture at each machining station base. Therefore, the communication between each base and the master is integral to the performance of the ac-tual machining function.

Each machining center has its own isolated Eth-ernet network, and there is no communication from one machining center to the next. The high-est number of addresses on any of the networks is seven. Each station controller is connected to the master through an Ethernet switch.

When we initially set up the machine, every-thing appeared to be functioning properly. But when we started putting it through its paces, we learned that everything wasn’t as rosy as we first thought.

Since the fixture positions are controlled out of the master controller, we depend on the sta-tion controller to wait until the fixture is at the commanded position (as determined by the master controller) before continuing the CNC program. To do this, we used an interface bit set by the master controller that indicated if the fixture for the corresponding station was in position or not.

Understanding there was a possibility of net-work collisions, we programmed a built-in latency

period into our PLC to ensure that communica-tions had ample time to complete. This latency was set for 500 ms, but that proved insufficient. We experienced network delays that sometimes could be measured in seconds, let alone milliseconds.

Subsequently, without any command updates, the commanded position always equaled the actual position. As a result, on one occasion, the machine crashed into the fixture because the sig-

nal from the master controller never indicated an out-of-position condition.

These communication challenges would not be an issue had we implemented a determin-istic network such as a Profibus or DeviceNet. While there would have been some additional upfront hardware costs for either of these net-work technologies, a variety of downstream costs would have been avoided. We would have avoided hardware purchases needed to help reduce network collisions, repair costs due to network-caused machine crashes, engineering expenses related to debugging variations in the communication cycles, and costs associated with schedule delays from Ethernet failing to perform at expected levels.

We did build a very reliable machine tool, but there is still a lag on interactions between each station controller and the master control-ler. So, from a controls engineering standpoint, Ethernet failed to produce the process reliabil-ity we expected.

In hindsight, there were no compelling factors dictating we specify Ethernet on these machines. We weren’t going to link to an MRP system, we didn’t need remote monitoring via the Internet, and we weren’t looking to transfer programs or data from an engineer’s desk to the machine—even at the plant level. We selected Ethernet based on the machine manufacturer’s recommendations and the peer pressure that came from an apparent-ly overwhelming industry shift toward Ethernet.

This was Liberty Precision Industries’ first experi-ence using Ethernet for actual process control, and by the end, we found ourselves asking, “Hasn’t any-one else had these problems?”

Ethernet might be my protocol of choice some-day, but until greater reliability is added to it, it will have to remain in the backseat.

LET’S REMEMBER THAT

A CONTROL SYSTEM’S

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE

IS TO RUN THE PROCESS

EFFICIENTLY AND

RELIABLY.

In 2004, JASON CHRISTOPHER

…was a controls designer for system integrator Liberty Precision

Industries, Rochester, N.Y. Last we knew, he was working for Rockwell Automation as an

automation specialist.

Ethernet? At What Cost?

T E R M I N A T O RINDUSTRIAL NETQWORKING

26

As part of our anniversary look back at some of the content

we’ve created during our 10 years, here’s a column as it first appeared in Q2 2004. As you’ll learn, for this engineer and many others, Ethernet wasn’t the near-nirvana network that many users and suppliers tout it to be today.

SIMATIC NET provides seamless communication between all automation components.

Totally Integrated Automation

www.usa.siemens.com/tia

©2

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2 Siem

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