HIRSCHMANN_NETWORK_SYSTEMS.DOC

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Hirschmann Network Systems Distributed Communication Architecture Industrial networking solutions with a future Hirschmann Boiler plate .4 Section 1 .5 Industrial Communications Systems .5 Introduction .5 Hirschmann DCA - a strategy for the next millennium 5 Strategic direction 5 Why do you need a network architecture? .6 Flexibility for the future .6 The lack of a single transparent automation and control network .6 The network is a long-term major asset .6 Principles for industrial network architecture 7 Industry trends 7 The need for high performance Industrial networks .9 Distributed Communication Architecture – DCA 10 A statement of direction for industrial networks 10 Real time .10 Migration .11 Topology & Resilience 11 Management .11 Performance 11 Cost. .11 A blueprint for future industrial network growth .11 Section 2 .12 An industrial networking architecture for the next millennium 12 The future of automation .12 The Vision .13 Criteria for network evaluation 16 REAL-TIME 17 Ethernet 17 Legacy Fieldbus .17 MIGRATION .17 Ethernet 17 Legacy Fieldbus .17 TOPOLOGY & RESILIENCE 17 Ethernet 17 Legacy Fieldbus .17 Continued… .17 Ethernet 17 Legacy Fieldbus .17 MANAGEMENT .18 Ethernet 18 Legacy Fieldbus .18 PERFORMANCE 18 Ethernet 18 Legacy Fieldbus .18 COST 18 Ethernet 18 Legacy Fieldbus .18 Section 3 .19 The Ethernet Evolution 19 A brief history 21 The road to deterministic Ethernet 21 Ethernet developments over the past decade .22 Evolving standards 23 Section 4 .25 A time for change 25 Market dynamics .25 Vendor opportunities 26 Section 5 .28 Hirschmann’s DCA 28 A blueprint for future industrial growth .28 The Hirschmann Ethernet Fieldbus Approach .29 Real-time 30 Migration. 30 Topology & Resilience. .31 Management. 32 Performance 33 Cost. .33 Benefits 33 What Hirschmann offers 33 Summary 34 2 . . . . . . . . . . Hirschmann Network Systems Communications Strategy Hirschmann's long-term communications strategy is based around the complementary strands of industrial automation & control communication and enterprise-wide communications, managed by a common management application, HiVision. The Distributed Communication Architecture (DCA) describes a robust standards-based Ethernet solution for all levels of the industrial automation and control environment, managing and handling information from instruments and sensors to control devices which intercommunicate with plant computer equipment. DCA can be deployed throughout the wide spectrum of industrial applications. Factory automation, traffic management and process control are typical environments where Hirschmann’s industrial network solutions are being used. With intranet/Internet access to the control network managers are able to view the shopfloor, data and activities easily and cost-effectively. Industrial networks need to provide two views of the factory or process - a view of operations and a view of configuration/management/diagnostics. Both require traffic management capabilities in the network to prioritize traffic and minimize congestion, which DCA provides. The Scalable Ethernet Architecture (SEA) is a strategic framework for scalable Ethernet throughout the enterprise, from the workgroup to the enterprise backbone, comprising advanced network devices and management software. 3 Hirschmann Boiler plate Hirschmann Network Systems, a division of Richard Hirschmann GmbH & co, is the leading manufacturer of robust system solutions, designed specifically for industrial networking requirements. Part of Rheinmetall Elektronik AG, the highly successful German industrial conglomerate, Hirschmann Network Systems have ambitious growth plans and aim to become the number one supplier of industrial strength networking solutions within the next three years. With a broad spectrum of products, Hirschmann provides a complete range of Ethernet solutions for industrial and corporate end users. Customers come from all enterprises, industrial and public sectors, including chemical and automotive industries, finance and banking, local government, education, the media and health care. Hirschmann has performed particularly well in harsh industrial environments where the emphasis is placed on “super-resilient”, deterministic networks. The industrial product portfolio, IndustrialLine, developed specifically for the challenging conditions of the industrial world, include maintenance free, long-lived, standards compliant products that are easily installed within a plug and play architecture. Consisting of hubs, concentrators and switches, the IndustrialLine includes four product families: ASGE, MC, MR and the second generation DIN Rail family of products all designed to address the specific requirements of mission-critical industrial networking. Steeped in a tradition of technological innovation, the first milestone for the company was back in 1984 with the installation of the world’s first Ethernet network, employing Fibre Optics at the University of Stuttgart. Today, Hirschmann has 100,000 hubs and switches installed in over 15,000 networks world-wide while domestically; Hirschmann is the prime network supplier to 150 of Germany’s Top 500 companies. Hirschmann continues to develop innovative, high quality network systems with 15% of its annual revenues invested back into R&D. Hirschmann is ISO9001 certified and belongs to all the predominant standardisation bodies. These include the IEEE, Gigabit Ethernet Alliance and ATM Forum, Open DeviceNET Vendor Association (ODVA), Profibus Trade Organisation (PTO) and the Fieldbus Foundation. 4 . . . . . . . . . . Section 1 Industrial Communications Systems Networks exist to support the needs of the factory and are the lifeblood of the manufacturing process. However, it seems all this transferring data around between the different layers of the current factory floor network is becoming too complex. Hirschmann solves this dilemma. Instead of viewing factory networks as independent layers, they are viewed as a single resource for data streams prioritised by application needs. By viewing factory traffic as layered data streams, it is possible to forward data using a set of rules that applies to all layers. Instead of compromising between the different capabilities of the different layers of today's factory network, managers can use them fully. Introduction Most factory floor networks are not ready to take manufacturing into the next millenium. The DCA product line from Hirschmann provides manufacturers with a practical high- performance answer with the ability to operate distributed high-bandwidth networks, delivering unmatched performance through sophisticated robust design Hirschmann DCA - a strategy for the next millennium The industry is dominated by legacy fieldbus solutions. So-called fast control networks generally operate at a meagre 1 or 2Mbps and lack the ability to scale to multi-megabit speeds and support thousands of devices. Newer fieldbuses like 12Mbps Profibus promise higher performance, but with an accompanying expensive price-tag. Foundation Fieldbus are now committed to using 100Mbps Fast Ethernet for the long awaited H2 specification. Of these alternatives, it is only Fieldbus Foundation with the H2 standard that has the potential to provide an optimal solution for Industrial automation networks. This is the market opportunity targeted by Hirschmann's Distributed Communication Architecture. Designed to meet the demands of the most mission-critical application, DCA is optimised to deliver the deterministic performance, scalability and high resilience required by these applications at price-points far below those of today's fieldbus solution. Hirschmann's Distributed Communication Architecture describes a control network strategy for the next millennium. Strategic direction Simply, Hirschmann's DCA network architecture defines the strategic direction for its next generation Ethernet fieldbus products - IndustrialLine. The combination of new demands on the factory floor network and the emergence of the intranet/Internet technologies has pushed current-generation fieldbus designs to their architectural limits. Although elegantly simple in concept, DCA is a radical rethinking of the control network architecture - and also defines the strategic direction for the development of the Hirschmann IndustrialLine products. The DCA architecture is the means by which 5 Hirschmann will deliver high performance and guaranteed quality of service for real-time processes as well as easy, low-cost deployment, thanks to its compatibility with legacy fieldbus solutions. Why do you need a network architecture? Users are going to be spending large amounts of money on new automation and control networks to meet the forthcoming bandwidth and performance crisis, so it makes sense to do it right first time. A well thought-out network architecture outlines the solution to this crisis and gives customers confidence about a vendors capability to answer both current and future needs. Flexibility for the future As the automation and control infrastructure changes over time, the network architecture must incorporate the necessary flexibility to accommodate evolving user needs. Investing in the network today will buy flexibility for tomorrow. The lack of a single transparent automation and control network The past lack of an appropriate automation and control network architecture coupled with the lack of standardisation of vendor offerings has prevented the rapid development of new products and new vendor services. The subsequent lack of competitiveness (or dominance of any single vendor-driven set of "standards") and the complexity of current three-tier control networks has opened a new window of opportunity for vendors who want to embrace a new architecture. The diagram below shows how and when Ethernet is going to push down from the information level all the way to intelligent devices at the instrumentation level. The network is a long-term major asset For users, the deployment of an automation and control network and related equipment is a major expense and as a long-term major corporate asset and utility, a coherent network architecture justifies the spending of funds. Network architecture identifies the major components of a network and how they relate to one another. Since it is strategic in definition, individual components or devices may not be currently available, but available in a time-scale of about 18 months. In essence, it defines the ideal state of an actual implementation of a network. However, an architecture does not specify the exact sizing and placement of its components. 6 Principles for industrial network architecture Although hardware and software implementation differs, the underlying standards for open, production management systems are the same as can be found in today’s business systems. That means freedom from the expense of maintaining specialized, one-of-a-kind systems to run their plants. Further, open systems unchain live manufacturing data, enabling companies to distribute it freely across enterprise networks in real-time to people who can use it to make a whole company run more effectively. Changing manufacturing practices are leading towards a new industrial automation and control infrastructure. As firms move into the global marketplace and implement advanced production processes, new technologies - such as Internet, wireless communications, graphical client/server applications, smart devices and decision support systems - are being deployed to reduce costs and streamline operations. However, these new tools and business processes create significant data distribution problems from the device level to the back office. Companies employing the latest automation and control techniques can expect a steep rise in bandwidth requirements, along with multiple challenges as they embrace technology to improve vendors' and customers' role in production. Emerging production processes, integrated systems and control/communications technology offer significant competitive advantages. For many years, the drive in manufacturing has been towards streamlined operations, improved response time to production schedule changes and the use of electronics to price and fill orders. Industry trends The Internet, and its associated technologies, has radically changed the way people go about their business today. It has improved communications throughout society and is now ubiquitous on a global scale. During the 1990’s the main user of the Internet has been people as they provide the intelligence to filter and sort the fast amounts of material available into useable information. This model is changing. In the world of office automation Internet technology has been designed into the devices that support the business and its infrastructure. Example of this evolutionary process can be seen in products as diverse as photocopiers and printers to LAN routers and voice PBXs. So why 7 is this happening? The answer is simple - it makes sense! Giving intelligent devices the ability to communicate with the outside world is a good thing. In the case of the printer & copier automated ordering of consumables such as paper or toner, either to the office administrator or the supplier by email both saves time, money and increases availability of the device. As for the PBX, the ability for a device to inform the maintenance company when tolerances are exceeded and things start to go wrong, rather than wait for a complete system failure, saves time and money for all concerned. The additional benefit is that the technology differentiates the supplier through improved customer service & support. This value proposition, “to save time and money whilst offering increased service and support” has great worth in Industrial application where vast sums of money can be lost in a relatively short time when production or processes are halted. For the process and manufacturing industries, this is the year of change and a shift to new technologies. Underpinning all technological trends is the move towards open, transparent commercial installations based on intranet/Internet and away from legacy, vendor driven systems. Every part of the process control and automation industry - from embedded systems to the Fieldbus Foundation - has recognised the importance of Ethernet and TCP/IP. Ethernet has become the dominant network technology at the controller supervisory level. Every Controller, PLC and DCS vendor has an Ethernet interface and it is now moving downwards towards device and the I/O level. 8 The need for high performance Industrial networks Adding these new processes, systems and technologies to today's automation and control communication infrastructure will stress it unbearably. Bottlenecks caused by, typically three, discrete networks (Plant, Control & Device) will need to be removed before networks become a transparent and plant wide utility. Over the past five years there have been many enhancements to the Ethernet standards, especially in areas of determinism, speed and prioritisation. There is no longer any reason why Ethernet cannot be used to build deterministic fieldbus solutions that are cost- effective and open. Since Ethernet is already the network choice for business computing, its presence at the control level will make sensor to boardroom integration a reality rather than a goal for manufacturers. With the physical bottlenecks removed raw transmission speed needs to be increased and management policies implemented to allow the various traffic types to be prioritised according to needs. The initial impact of adding new, bandwidth hungry applications will be on factory floor network, followed by WANs, should a manufacturer want to make key manufacturing data available to customers and other partners in its supply chain. 9 . comprising advanced network devices and management software. 3 Hirschmann Boiler plate Hirschmann Network Systems, a division of Richard Hirschmann GmbH &. . . . . . . . . . . Hirschmann Network Systems Distributed Communication Architecture Industrial networking solutions with a future Hirschmann Boiler plate .4