ODVA suggests EtherNet/IP for process industries

ODVA advises process industries to migrate toward unified communications using the EtherNet/IP Ethernet protocol.

By Mark T. Hoske April 16, 2014

ODVA, the industry organization overseeing the EtherNet/IP Ethernet protocol, DeviceNet, and other network technologies, suggested that manufacturers define future network architecture and plan for the efficient integration of the plant network infrastructure into existing business applications. Benefits, ODVA said, include maintaining cost-effective, sustainable production capacity in the process industries. ODVA discussed process industries’ use of EtherNet/IP (EIP) in a white paper, Optimization of Process Integration, and at the ODVA’s 2014 Industry Conference, both in February. ODVA envisions an approach to the optimization of process integration that:

  • Is convergent, compatible, scalable, and open for users and their suppliers
  • Will simplify the exchange of configuration, diagnostic, and production data between field devices and higher-level systems, such as supervisory control and data acquisition systems
  • Will enable plant asset management (PAM) and secure remote access of field installations.

"In ARC’s vision for the plant of the future, Ethernet is integrated into process automation systems," said Dick Hill, vice president and general manager, ARC Advisory Group. "The application of Ethernet technology to process automation promises to collapse these systems into a paradoxically simpler structure, while providing a solid basis for distributed intelligence with the elimination of artificial barriers to data and information."

Katherine Voss, president and executive director, ODVA, said industry has increased use of Ethernet and IP technologies in automation systems used in process industries. "As EtherNet/IP is proven in hybrid and discrete industries, it is an ideal technology to provide process industries with a unified communication solution from the field to the enterprise."

Optimization of process integration (OPI), ODVA said, can help the industrial ecosystem and production domain. 

About ODVA

Founded in 1995, ODVA is a global association whose members are automation companies. ODVA said its "mission is to advance open, interoperable information and communication technologies in industrial automation. ODVA recognizes its media independent network protocol, the Common Industrial Protocol, or "CIP," and the network adaptations of CIP-EtherNet/IP, DeviceNet, CompoNet, and ControlNet-as its core technology and the primary common interest of its membership.

– Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager, CFE Media, Control Engineering, mhoske@cfemedia.com.

Online extra

This is a more detailed version of an April 2014 Control Engineering print and digital edition news story. Learn more from ODVA about its white paper, Optimization of Process Integration.

www.odva.org 


Author Bio: Mark Hoske has been Control Engineering editor/content manager since 1994 and in a leadership role since 1999, covering all major areas: control systems, networking and information systems, control equipment and energy, and system integration, everything that comprises or facilitates the control loop. He has been writing about technology since 1987, writing professionally since 1982, and has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree from UW-Madison.