FASTER AND FASTER, TIGHTER AND TIGHTER

Much tighter data synchronization is made possible by the latest Precision time Protocol version 2 (PTP v2) products. Hirschmann is among the first we've become aware of to announce new PTP v2 versions of existing Industrial Ethernet switches.

With PTP v2 synchronization accuracies in the nanosecond range are reached. Previous generations of switches (and some network protocols) used the Boundary clock of PTP v1. This involves offsets that 'ripple' across network nodes, so delays and variations must be accounted for. Now, the so-called Transparent clock defined in IEEE1588-2008 can be used. In essence, this appears on all nodes simultaneously across the network and so makes more accurate synchronization possible. It's another key step in the maturation process of Industrial Ethernet.

Hirschmann says that a free software upgrade for older devices of the MS20/30-Series can be downloaded here.

Posted 04/05/2009 @ 12:33:18 | IE General News | 0 Comments

WIMAX REARS ITS HEAD?

I've been asking about WiMax for some time, but still have no answers about its relevance to automation. Maybe Ethernet Direct have an answer?

They are claiming to have the first WiMax product for industry. Paraphrasing the press release we read ... "Ethernet Direct Corporation announces Falcon FWI-714W, which is cited as the World's First Industrial 5.9GHz WiMAX Wireless System. It offers the state-of-the art technology in the Industrial Wireless arena as well as highlighting Ethernet Direct's speed in product innovation by combining the latest wireless trends and superior product technology."

For those not in the know, WiMAX refers to Worldwide Inter-operability for Microwave Access which has become a trend nowadays in the telecommunications technology. One of its aims is to provide a cheaper alternative to broadband where infrastructure does not exist, or cannot be reasonably deployed. Thus, it's finding favour in less-developed countries. Where infrastructure exists, there may be no point in WiMax.

Oddly, we got an email only last week from a tiny village about 10 miles from my office, crowing about a Wimax installation they have negotiated to bring a decent broadband service into their homes and offices from the nearest switch about 7 miles away. BT, our main telecoms provider in UK, cannot get a decent speed ADSL service into the village via copper, so they've sought an alternative. (This does not necessarily make them less-developed of course, only more remote!). And they are already looking for other similarly-afflicted villages hereabouts to join them.

Industrially speaking, it's not clear what WiMax could offer ... except long range, fast throughput and low cost. Hmmm! Maybe there are opportunities. Also, Ethernet Direct are a Taiwanese company, and you know how quickly those guys are to spot a market gap.

Geoff Hodgkinson.

Posted 27/03/2009 @ 11:03:47 | IE General News | 0 Comments

NEXT GENERATION WIRELESS

An evolving wireless situation that's atracting too little interest (in our humble opinion) is the IEEE 802.11n standard. This 'fast throughput' WLAN has truly suffered from the machinations of the international standards-making system. The proposals split early on into two factions and stalemate was threatened, but they eventually morphed into a single approach some 2 years ago. Even then the discussions and behind the scenes activites were labarythine in the extreme.

Having moved to an 'office' in my garden 18 months ago - which 802.11a and g failed to reach from the house - I installed a 'Draft n' system to link two networks. This works brilliantly, except in the spring when freshly growing foliage causes random drop outs for about 6 weeks. So, good news then in the latest post on the 802.11n web site:

"TGn Draft 7.0 was recirculated in an unchanged form, and passed this recirculation ballot #138 by a 95.25% majority (75% required) with 281 votes to approve, 14 not approve. This met the conditions to forward the 802.11n draft to sponsor ballot. The draft then passed this sponsor ballot #1 by a 77.8% majority (75% required). 277 members are in the sponsor ballot pool. 224 votes were received with 158 votes to approve, 45 not approve. The comment resolution committee reviewed the 241 comments received, and will continue to do so beyond the end of this meeting."

This tells you that things are really coming to a head - nearly. PCs with 'Draft n' are available and network components can easily be bought today, presumably all solid enough to be upgraded on the fly if the standard changes minorly as it passes the final vote. Not my WAP though, which cannot be upgraded. Ah well - bleeding edge and all that!

'Wireless n' is designed for high throughput to support fast streaming around buildings (TV, video, gaming) but industrial components are out there. Once uncertainty goes I'm sure this technology will surface in many more places.

A related news story arrived today - from Laird Technologies, who have announced the availability of a Dual-Band MIMO Internal Antenna designed to 'enhance' the MIMO technology used by 'Wireless n'. "The size, gain, and beam pattern of the antenna makes it ideal for indoor WLAN applications in either the 2.4-2.5 GHz or 5.1-5.9 GHz band," says Laird, resulting in "a high-performance and cost-effective ... solution for many common WLAN applications". Just what my garden office needs maybe - except that this weekend I am laying Cat5 in a duct!

PS: We're still trying to get to grips with the relevance of WiMax to Industrial Wireless. As a technology Wimax is stable and popping up all over the world yet it still has little or no profile in the industrial arena. Anyone understand why?

Posted 17/02/2009 @ 14:21:32 | IE General News | 0 Comments

EtherNet/IP ON A CHIP

A Happy New Year to all readers ... if it's not too late to wish you that!

Interesting to read in a press release received today that Innovasic has a Module Evaluation Kit for the fido1100 Communication Controller with a complete EtherNet/IP™ solution inbuilt.

The kit contains a Dual Real-Time Ethernet (DRTE) module, baseboard, software, reference design, and all the cables required to evaluate the EtherNet/IP solution right out of the box. For evaluation, the module plugs into the baseboard and communicates with a PC via USB. The PC hosts all the development software and tools to evaluate the DRTE module on an EtherNet/IP network. The stack is from Pyramid Solutions and the TCP/IP Protocol Suite from NexGen Software, along with the fido1100 “RTOS Kernel in a Chip™”. All are royalty-free.

Innovasic adds that a complete roadmap of Industrial Ethernet solutions is planned. Also contact Innovasic here.

This is interesting because its another pointer towards the IE market maturing as entry costs drop. We all know how chip prices go down as volume rises and to some extent marketing of such chips impacts on the success of the related technology.

PROFINET ERTEC chips dropped in price around 12 months ago. They were originally marketed as the support needed for IRT, the PROFINET motion control solution, but in fact they can be general purpose PROFINET/TCP/IP chips too, although the too close IRT connection spoilt the image somwhat. ERTEC is available from Siemens and NEC separately (both with DKs), but misunderstandings still surround that too. We hear that a second, different, PROFINET chip from a third party source is on its way this year. Other IE solutions like EtherCAT also have chip-based solutions.

If cost is a factor there's surely little excuse for holding back any more, especially with various other ASIC, microcontroller and dedicated IE chips on sale too, like the NetX from Hilscher. Can we prepare to see Industrial Ethernet devices of all flavours shooting out of the woodwork this year?

Posted 23/01/2009 @ 14:04:26 | IE General News | 0 Comments

OMRON CHOOSES ETHERCAT FOR MOTION


Another story of significance - at least to this writer - coming out of SPS/IPC/Drives last week was the announcement by Omron that they will support EtherCAT for their next generation Motion Control systems.

Omron are geographically agnostic! They recently launched a PROFINET system par excellence for Europe, with built in media and system redundancy, but clearly they have decided against supporting PROFINET IRT for Motion. They support EtherNet/IP for North America (and maybe at home too). However, their Motion division is largely independent of mainline automation. Their current Trajexia solution is proprietary and clearly they feel that EtherCAT is more in line with their needs.

This raises the question once again: Is Motion part of automation, or a separate discipline as up until now? It's possible to argue on both sides of this proposition. EtherCAT is very fast in the line structures typical of Motion, and with the smaller telegrams that Drives usually need. PROFINET, and probably others like Ethernet/IP, keep Motion on the same network as the primary automation system. This is much better in the complex tree structures typical of modern automation. EtherCAT does not like opening itself up to other Ethernet systems, whereas the rest have deliberately kept everything integrated. From the users point of view one would think that a single network would be preferable.

The final answer is personal of course but EtherCAT seems to be tickling the fancy of quite a few vendors at the moment. To compete, PROFINET is already fine-tuning its protocol to respond in the raw Motion space described above, so maybe EtherCAT won't have everything its own way for ever.

Geoff Hodgkinson

Posted 03/12/2008 @ 10:00:46 | IE General News | 0 Comments