The standards-based Industrial Ethernet will come to dominate virtually every area of industrial network communications, even those where end users are presently satisfied with their fieldbus and similar systems. This will be a major step forward in enabling developing countries, particularly South Africa, to meet global standards cost-efficiently and enhance our ability to compete internationally.
This is the prediction of Schneider Electric, the French company which originated the Modbus system and is pioneering the adoption of Industrial Ethernet as the next generation in more efficient industrial communications and manufacturing control systems.
Schneider bases its forecasts on a number of factors, including a major recent commitment by China to adopt Modbus TCP as its national Industrial Ethernet standard. Also, a recent ARC Advisory Group study places Modbus TCP as the world's leading industrial Ethernet protocol in terms of units shipped in 2004.
Jean Jacques Poubeau, vice-president of Major Programs at Schneider, reveals that his company now has a clear Industrial Ethernet strategy based on an aggressive openness in partnership with both clients and third party suppliers. The result, he claims, will be the pervasive use of Ethernet technologies at every level of industry.
"We have dedicated solutions for applications where Ethernet does not yet fit or where other standards already exist - but even in those situations, we believe that there will be a migration to Ethernet in coming years," Poubeau says.
His predictions reflect a general business trend for openness in IT to facilitate the use of worldwide standards in partnerships to achieve global solutions. For several years, Schneider Electric has had an open system strategy implemented by the transfer of Modbus standards and intellectual property to the Modbus-IDA keeper organisation.
Poubeau says that the Modbus TCP share is increasing in the Industrial Ethernet market, with a recent ARC study revealing a 26% share of individual Industrial Ethernet installations and the largest installed user base of any IE protocol. It was closely followed by EtherNet/IP with 25%, but Profinet only had 2% of installations.
"Our two pillars of strategy are standards-based solutions and openness. We do not have a complete offering and we will partner with other third party companies to provide it. We will include nothing proprietary in the offering," Poubeau pledges. "Ethernet will substitute all proprietary network technologies. Everybody can win in an open world. I expect that 75% of Modbus TCP nodes will eventually be sold by third party vendors."
Poubeau admits that, in pursuit of openness, there is a risk of giving business to competitors on a plate. "If you are open, then your customers do not have to stay put with you," he says. "We think the trick is to try to offer best-in-class products, but where we do not have the products, we will actively try to get other Modbus members to provide the requirements."
However, he denies any parallel between the Schneider Electric/Modbus-IDA relationship and that of Siemens with PNO. Asserting that Siemens as a market leader in PNO standards-based products effectively controls that organisation, he claims that Schneider will truly remain at arm's length from the relevant open standards body.
"If you are the market leader you can protect your business, even when you have open standards and evolution of standards coming out of PNO remains largely under the control of Siemens. This is not what we intend to do with Modbus-IDA," Poubeau says.
On the question of Modbus TCP apparently lacking a closely tied realtime protocol, Poubeau maintains that realtime is not an issue for most potential customers. "We know that for more than 80%, perhaps 90%, of individual applications you do not need hard realtime," he maintains, adding that Schneider corporate strategy is to wait for a winning realtime standard to emerge, which it will then adopt.
Meanwhile, applications needing realtime sectors will be engineered with Sercos 2 bus structures. Sercos 3, which runs on 100 Mbps Ethernet, will not be used because it has yet to prove itself as an Ethernet-based standards' solution.
Poubeau reveals that Web technology and standards based on Web Services will be part of the Schneider 'core vision' for industrial networks, with Ethernet TCP/IP web servers finding use at all system levels from field device to supervisory roles.
The company envisages three types of web server. The most basic form would provide embedded dynamic pages. The next level up would be configurable in that page content could be user-defined, while the top level servers would provide services such as e-mail, database access and human-machine interfaces.
For more information contact Linda Eales or Derain Pillay, Schneider Electric South Africa, +27 (0) 11 254 6400.
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