PROFINET

Scope / Goals

PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) and OPC Foundation have been working cooperatively for years. This cooperation is being intensified in order to systematically continue the integration of OPC UA into the system architecture of PROFINET.

The working group develops OPC UA information models for access to objects of PROFINET devices in a vendor independent way for horizontal communication on the field level, as well as vertical communication initiated from devices in the process or enterprise level, e.g. for diagnostics, configuration, condition monitoring, visualization etc.

Technical Content

It is apparent today that the service-oriented architecture of OPC UA (Unified Architecture) will be a building block for the development of Industrie 4.0. In particular for communication with devices such as operator stations via the controller level or for production data from devices to corporate IT, especially in an environment with different providers. OPC UA becomes the link for the non-deterministic communication between different types of devices on this level and between levels. PROFINET takes over the transmission or deterministic real-time data and control-relevant acyclic data in automation systems. PROFINET and OPC UA are therefore already a perfect complement to one another today because PROFINET allows open communication based on TCP/IP in parallel without additional expense. For example: automation of a screwdriver control in real-time using PROFINET. Quality data such as tightening torques can then be transmitted to the quality management systems over the same cable via OPC UA.

More Information

See here: Video “OPC UA and ProfiNET” by Karsten Schneider, former chairman PROFIBUS and ProfiNET International (PI)