Unified communication via TSN

EBV provides its customers virtually everything they need to enable them to develop the appropriate application. A good example is the communication on the production level in the factory floor through the future communication standard TSN (Time-Sensitive Networking).

On the lower field level the data is currently exchanged through proprietary buses like Profibus, Varan or through Ethernet variants like Ethernet/IP, Ethercat, Ethernet Powerlink, Safetynet-p or Profinet. One level above field level, on the control level, experts are trying to install a standard communication. As in the factories most machines work in parallel, often coming from different suppliers.

The proprietary buses have to communicate through complicated gateways to enable some sort of a real-time communication at least. Every single gateway represents an additional effort, which requires development resources as well as being costly, simultaneously introducing a time delay into the real-time communication, and increasing system complexity. Such gateways translate from, for example, Profinet to Ethercat, and Ethercat to Sercos etc. 

Sercos III, the third generation of the Sercos interface series according to IEC/EN 61491, has been submitted to the IEC (International Electric/Electrotechnical Commission) for worldwide standardization, to become part of the international standards IEC 61800-7, IEC 61784 and eventually IEC 61158. Sercos is actively supported internationally by more than 50 control manufacturers and more than 30 drive manufacturers. The user organization Sercos International (SI) is responsible for further development of the standard.

Thus a unified communication standard like TSN is highly desirable to allow universal use of different components, especially since TSN facilitates seamless communication with the higher levels, in which the Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) work. Typical representatives of MES are units like PLCs (Programmable Logic Control) and SCADA systems (Supervision Control And Data Acquisition). TSN is currently being standardized by the IEEE and originally comes from the automotive industry. 

Due to the complexity of TSN, EBV Elektronik cooperates with partners that can help to support this standard. In this EBV works in cooperation with these partners regarding components like processors and switches in connection with the BSPs and the necessary software for its customers. Thus EBV´s customers are in a position to develop TSN-compatible applications themselves with acceptable effort.
As opposed to the high volumes associated with the big automotive OEMs the production batches in the industrial segment are normally much smaller, so a cost-effective solution of a TSN development would not be possible without appropriate partnerships and tool kits for most companies.