This tutorial was developed to give the reader a basic understanding of how industrial networking and communications can be used in applications. Since there are many books that cover different aspects of what we briefly discuss here, hopefully this tutorial will be a starting point, an executive summary, and our web page can point you in more directions for further understanding. Please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions.
One researcher has identified over 250 industrial networks. Which ones are right for your facility? This tutorial will discuss many of the issues that you need to consider when selecting an industrial network.
Networking and communications have been around for decades. One of the first networks, Modbus, almost became extinct, but is now reborn on Ethernet.
An early disappointment was the failure of the Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP) developed by GM in the 1980s. We think that something similar to this, but using today's technology, would be the ideal solution. Imagine having a wireless communications network on your automation device that has ten or more channels of high-speed communications. Your I/O could be on channel one, HMIs on channel two, other PLCs in this department on channel three, PLCs in other departments on channel four, manufacturing databases on channel five, quality control on channel six, etc. This would allow you to communicate with everything without concerns about how to implement the communications.
We try to offer a fair and balanced opinion on every page of our website. We would appreciate more information from other industrial networking and communications users to express their opinions which we will then incorporate. If you have questions or comments please post them on our message board (see button in left hand column) so that others can read and benefit.