The PROFINET planning guideline has been revised and is now available for free download in German and English on the PI website. It supports the planner of PROFINET automation systems in their work, facilitates the professional planning of a system and serves as a guideline for step-by-step planning of the system. It also helps with the selection of devices and network components. By defining a network structure, reliable network performance is achieved and simple installation, commissioning and maintenance are made possible.
The planning guideline is constantly being updated. The recently published version now includes Conformance Class D (CC-D), TSN, application profiles, the basics of network technology, networks with multiple controllers, and information on naming.
Conformance Class D (CC-D) is based on Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) and offers the advantage that Gigabit Ethernet can be used. This involves several Ethernet standards that lead to an improvement in the properties of the network. The use of TSN ensures that the transmission of process data cannot be influenced by other data in the network. Real-time traffic is logically and temporally isolated from non-real-time traffic by the TSN mechanisms. This makes it easier to implement converged networks in which PROFINET and other services use the same network. In addition, TSN enables a clock-synchronous applications like motion control and sequence of events.
Application profiles define a series of manufacturer-independent properties that are supported by devices. This ensures that devices from different manufacturers behave identically. This enables manufacturer-independent device selection, simple device replacement even when changing manufacturers and simplified configuration.
The new planning guideline also explains the basics of network technology. It explains what is relevant for planning the topology. The terms port, interface, switch and router are defined, the applicable topologies are explained, and the transmission media that can be used are presented. In addition, networks with several controllers are discussed and the function of I-Devices, shared devices and shared inputs is explained.
All PROFINET devices must be assigned a unique device name and a unique IP address. A sensible and meaningful naming convention provides maintenance personnel with information about the function and installation location of the device. The PROFINET planning guideline specifies the conditions that must be met when selecting device names.
The PROFINET planning guideline supplements the PROFINET installation guideline and the PROFINET commissioning guideline. All documents are freely available on the PI website.