PINA General Assembly looks ahead to growing industrial Ethernet deployments

Profibus Profinet North America discusses the future of industrial networking in its 2013 General Assembly. It isn’t a matter of how, but how soon Ethernet will be the primary method in process and discrete manufacturing environments, even the device level. Video: Carl Henning and Michael Bowne discuss messages from the event.

By Peter Welander October 9, 2013

In its General Assembly meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., last month, members of PINA (Profibus Profinet North America) heard what’s been happening within the world of industrial networking, particularly the Profi family of protocols. In the video, Carl Henning, deputy director for PINA and Michael Bowne, technical marketing director, elaborate on some of the messages from the event. Carl’s Profiblog offers additional information.

The message was clear the family of protocols is thriving and there is growth of devices and deployments on all fronts. While the traditional fieldbus products (Profibus DP and PA) continue to develop, albeit incrementally given their mature status, Profinet, the Ethernet-based protocol, is pulling away both in the number of deployments and technical sophistication.

Given the group’s objective to promote broader use of the protocols among end users and equipment suppliers, the phrase, “Profinet does that” was offered as a summary of the overall value proposition. In one of several keynote addresses, Raj Batra, president industry automation division of Siemens Industry, characterized Profinet as an enabling force for technology advancements and the infrastructure that supports innovation.

A common thread to many discussions is that older fieldbus protocols will soon be supplanted by Profinet in a way that allows a simple migration process. Proxy devices can be set up to integrate fieldbus networks, or Profinet can be configured to mimic Profibus PA.

Peter Welander, pwelander@cfemedia.com

www.us.profibus.com