The Hannover Fair is the largest industrial trade show. Each year a partner country is featured with this year’s partner being the USA. Not surprisingly, attendance from the USA reached an all-time high at 5,000 out of the 190,000 attendees. PI had its own booth on the red carpet tour route.
Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) is expected to be the next big advancement in standard Ethernet. This set of standards will allow deterministic performance as part of IEEE-standard Ethernet. Some of the standards will not be finalized for quite some time, but PI has begun a Working Group to determine how best to leverage TSN in PROFINET. Note that PROFINET already provides deterministic, high-speed performance, but as TSN starts to appear as part of the Ethernet infrastructure, PROFINET will use it. Initial results from the working group are expected in November.
This issue spotlights the 29 global certified PI Training Centers (PITCs) in 19 countries around the globe. PITCs train engineers and installers in courses ranging in length from one day to week-long. PITCs can be certified to teach Certified PROFIBUS Designer / Engineer / Installer, Certified PROFIBUS PA Engineer, and/or Certified PROFINET Engineer / Installer.
Did you know that IO-Link is regarded as a facilitator for the diagnostic concepts of Industrie 4.0? Industrie 4.0 is loaded with high expectations. If it is to become a reality, data and information from the sensor/actuator level must be made accessible. IO-Link makes an important and essential contribution toward reaching this valuable data by providing communication capability to the last meter to the field device.
Head of the PI Factory Automation Marketing Group, Xaver Schmidt, introduces Issue 139 of PROFINEWS with observations on adding PROFINET to automation devices. It's the theme of this issue, as well as the approaching Hannover Messe.
Hannover Fair will be held April 25-29 with the theme “Integrated Industry - Discover Solutions.” This year’s partner country is the USA and President Obama will be there for the opening ceremony with a large contingent from the US. PI will present PROFINET, PROFIBUS, and IO-Link at Hall 9, Booth D68 under the banner “PROFINET - The Backbone of Industrie 4.0.” Stop by to see how PI technologies can already fulfill the requirements of Industrie 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things.
This is the second in our series on network management with PROFINET. It covers PROFINET device naming, PROFINET Discovery and Configuration Protocol (DCP), and Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP).
There are over 200 training classes remaining globally in 2016. Visit the PI global training website to filter by country, technology, and target student. Of note is an IO-Link workshop in Italy. In North America, the training schedule is finalized for PROFINET free one-day training classes, PROFINET and PROFIBUS Certified Network Engineer classes, and PROFINET Developer classes.
