The world-renowned consulting agency “Roland Berger” pointed out in its industry report “Embrace the New World of 5G”: 5G will help wireless automation control, industrial cloud robots, predictive power through powerful wireless connectivity, edge computing and network slicing technologies. Industry breakthroughs such as maintenance and flexible production drive the real implementation of Industry 4.0 and further promote the birth of future factories. However, although 5G can carry different typical services of industrial networks in terms of technical performance indicators, the industry generally believes that there are still many key problems in 5G industrial applications to be solved, including: The impact of network interruption on factory equipment and production is unacceptable, and it is necessary to Solve security and reliability; there are many problems in the compatibility of fieldbus and data acquisition equipment of traditional production equipment, and the transformation difficulty and cost are high; URLLC (ultra-reliable, low-latency communication) for industrial application scenarios has a 0.5ms uplink and downlink time The extended target is difficult to meet the requirements of some strong time-sensitive industrial applications; and so on.

If the deployment of 5G draws an ideal vision for the future of industrial intelligence, then the transformation of a large number of Ethernet used in industrial manufacturing based on Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) is already in place, and related technologies are contributing to the implementation of intelligent manufacturing. ADI systems applications engineer Volker wrote two years ago: “TSN is unstoppable, and the only thing to be confirmed is when and in what form.” Today, the momentum shows that the landing is in progress. “By combining with TSN features, ADI has implemented the most advanced field device communication solutions at the edge of the industrial network.” Roger Yu, Marketing Manager of the Industrial Automation Industry in ADI China, said in a recent industry exchange event He revealed that the advanced field device communication solution he mentioned was the company’s fido5000 series switching platform that supports the exchange of multiple Ethernet protocols.

Whether it is 5G or traditional industrial Ethernet transformation, it is necessary to meet the demanding performance requirements of inter-factory equipment.

From thunder to rain, Ethernet-based real-time communication is imperative

Time Sensitive Networking refers to a set of protocol standards developed by the TSN task group in the IEEE 802.1 working group. This standard defines a time-sensitive mechanism for Ethernet data transmission, adding determinism and reliability to standard Ethernet to ensure that Ethernet can provide a stable and consistent level of service for the transmission of critical data. This technology has attracted the attention of the industry in the early days, especially in the past two years, this once unfamiliar professional vocabulary has frequently appeared in various professional media, and it has become a “thunder” before the coming of Industry 4.0.

As time enters 2019, TSN has heard more “rain sounds” in the industry: the latest version of PROFINET specification V2.4 is released. The biggest highlight of this specification is the integration of TSN as a second-layer technology into PROFINET. The target set in the architecture; the new generation network protocol CC-Link IE TSN was also released at the same time, taking the lead in the world to combine Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth with TSN, expanding CC-Link IE based on industrial Ethernet to realize enterprises from the information layer Advanced communication technology vertically integrated to the application layer; and at Hannover Messe 2019, numerous product demonstration solutions demonstrated that TSN is setting off a wave of industrial Internet…

Yu Changtao’s Keynote Speech: ADI Helps Accelerate towards Industry 4.0

With the advancement of various intelligent transformation projects, the traditional communication protocols between various sensor nodes and PLCs have given way to various versions of ultra-high-speed Ethernet protocols, which are the key to factory operating technology (OT) infrastructure and enterprise information technology ( IT) infrastructure has created the conditions for the high integration of TSN-based Ethernet. In recent years, almost all TSN-related working groups have been working on a subject: ensuring that the transition to TSN and the provision of resources for the existing network will be like building on existing facilities.

In fact, the industry has successfully developed an extended version of the standard Ethernet that conforms to IEEE 802.1 based on TSN, successfully getting rid of the past limitations. Compared with the previous industrial Ethernet method, the biggest technical advantage of TSN is its scalability. Unlike current industrial networks, TSN is not defined for a specific transmission rate, TSN can be used for 100 Mbps, and it can also be used for 1 Gbps, 10 Mbps or 5 Gbps. “To support this expansion requirement, ADI’s fido5000 Ethernet platform enables systems to switch from any one Ethernet protocol to another without redesigning the hardware,” said Roger.

The hard core supports TSN, and the Ethernet protocol switching scheme lays out the future of the industry

As a key provider of high-performance industrial signal chain related technologies, ADI has sensitively captured the needs of automation customers for highly reliable synchronous network technology many years ago, such as supporting groups of robots in automobile manufacturing plants in an orderly manner under harsh and noisy conditions. An application environment for collaborative work. To this end, ADI decisively acquired Innovasic, a leading supplier of deterministic Ethernet semiconductors and software solutions, in 2016, greatly expanding the company’s deterministic Ethernet technology and expertise, providing a powerful solution for highly synchronized industrial automation networks and industrial Internet of Things. Live connection. At that time, the IEEE was developing a new standard for time-sensitive networking.

With the integration of Innovasic, the fido5000 series of industrial dual-port switches has been incorporated into ADI’s product line. The switch supports all relevant industrial Ethernet protocols, making it ADI’s most hard-core technical solution to support TSN applications.

This SoC chip is a real-time Ethernet multi-protocol switch for industrial Ethernet applications, which can support all major industrial protocols today. With fido5000, it is possible to transition product planning to TSN and meet current requirements at the same time (PROFINET IRT, EtherCAT, POWERLINK, EtherNet/ IP, etc.). The flexible architecture of the switch can adapt to future changes in the protocol and support future protocols and other developments. With the fido5000, it will also make it possible to implement OPC UA PUB/SUB. “With the fido5000 series, users can prepare for all industrial scenarios,” Roger points out.

The fido5000 switch chip solves the key problem of coexistence of mainstream Ethernet protocols.

The real-time Ethernet switch chip and the processor communicate through the memory bus to achieve high-performance, low-latency/low-jitter industrial Ethernet. The memory bus also provides a master interface using PriorityChannel® technology, a filtering technology developed by ADI using hardware and software co-design to ensure that critical data from Ethernet is processed in a timely manner regardless of protocol and network utilization, so Interference with non-time-critical data traffic is avoided. This means that data from the live channel is processed in preference to normal network data.

In addition to the switching function, the fido5000 also has a powerful Timer Control Unit (TCU). The TCU is designed to implement synchronization mechanisms for various industrial Ethernet protocols. With four dedicated outputs or four general purpose I/Os, other functions such as input capture can be implemented, or any square wave signal can be output. These ports are all directly in phase with the sync time. For example, it can timestamp the arrival of edges on any of the four inputs with 64-bit resolution. On the output side, any digital signal pattern can be output synchronized with the network time. This means that the user’s application can be synchronized with the network time, and the cycle time is even as low as less than 31.25μs. “But the capabilities of the fido5000 don’t stop there – the chip is ready for the future! The fido5000 supports time-sensitive networking. The demands of future TSN-based industrial Ethernet applications will be able to meet the very demanding real-time demands of applications such as motion control or safety. Request,” Roger stressed.

Summary of this article: TSN paves the way to the future of industry

As an underlying protocol for real-time communication requirements in industrial fields, the advantages provided by TSN allow IEEE Ethernet technology to keep pace with the times again, meeting the expectations of many suppliers and manufacturers of industrial automation technology for an open communication platform independent of manufacturers. This enables more and more automated processes system-wide. The switch chip solution that supports TSN provides a smooth transition and an effective solution for realizing this desire.