20 JUNE - JULY 2015

“Connecting these devices with a hard

deterministic protocol promises success and

Accenture, Bharat Electronics Limited, ABB,

Robert Bosch Engineering Services, Barry

Wehmiller International were amongst those

to attend the conference. The conference

touched on topics ranging from basics of

industrial Ethernet to its usage in high

performance automation applications. It also

highlighted Ethernet POWERLINK, the

comple te ly open source , hardware

independent software solution on standard

Ethernet complying with IEEE 802.3 for

achieving deterministic performance down

to 100 micro seconds.

Industry 4.0 stresses on usage of open

technologies and has also given birth to

concepts like Internet of Things, cloud

computing, big data, and smart factories.

“Efficient interconnection of devices in a

reliable way is a key to Industry 4.0” quotes

P.V. Sivaram, Managing Director, B&R India,

this is what Ethernet POWERLINK is all

about”. With an insight into the global and

Indian automation trends P.V. Sivaram set the

tone for the conference proceedings.

Ethernet vs Real time Ethernet

Ethernet was an obvious choice to replace

fieldbuses due to bandwidth and speed

offering, but soon everyone realized that

Ethernet is only well suited for office

applications which are not critical. While

industrial automation demands a real time

deterministic communication, Ethernet is

plagued by the CSMA/CD mechanisms

making it non deterministic.

Why do industrial applications demand

determinism? Does determinism just equate

to the speed or does hard real-time equate to

speed? Determinism or hard real time is

about guaranteeing time and eventually by

Real Time Ethernet Conference organized by the Ethernet POWERLINK Standardization Group focused on an

open source approach to achieving determinism on standard Ethernet. The conference in partnership with

Altera, B&R Automation and Kalycito was held on 28th April 2015 in Bangalore. The concepts of the future will

thrive on the use of open technologies and this half day conference concentrated on how POWERLINK easily

satisfies this requirement.

P. V. SivaramManaging Director, B&R India

Efficient interconnection of devices in a

reliable way is a key to Industry 4.0.

Connecting these devices with a hard

deterministic protocol promises success and

this is what Ethernet POWERLINK is all about

“

”

REAL TIME ETHERNET POST CONFERENCE REVIEW

Altera, B&R Automation and Kalycito partner for open source Ethernet POWERLINK

Organised by: Partners:

21JUNE - JULY 2015

"The reign of proprietary systems for

industrial electronics is over. Openness and

real independence from these manufacturers

makes it easy for device manufacturers to

integrate POWERLINK cheaply and easily.

They enjoy this freedom of implementation

with the choice of hardware and software at

their disposal" says Ninad Deshpande,

Specialist – Open Technologies.“In less than

a decade Ethernet POWERLINK has created a

strong foothold in the Indian market with

more than 100,000 nodes installation at

various plants. These nodes encompass

controllers, remote I/Os, drives, sensors and

actuators. Device manufacturers in India too

have realized the benefits of the technology

and expressed their trust in the open source

stack. Absolutely no licenses and no

copyrights!” Ethernet POWERLINK, which is

a real time open source solution, is used as a

communication backbone in systems.

POWERLINK is the world-wide leader for real

time Ethernet solutions. As of 2014 it has an

installation base of over 1.1 million systems

and 3200 OEMs trusting in POWERLINK.

License for POWERLINK is recognized by the

Open Source Initiative as OSD-Conformant

under the Open Source Definition “10

Criteria”.POWERLINK also has a BSD license

which is a family of a permissive free

software licenses, imposing minimal

restrictions on the redistribution of covered

software. This is in contrast to copy left

licenses, which have reciprocity share-alike

requirements. This BSD license states that

everyone is allowed to use and change the

code and achieve derived works with an

ability to re-publish changes under any other

license. POWERLINK is the only real-time

guaranteeing time one guarantees speed and

performance. If we look at a typical bottling

application it is of utmost importance to

synchronize the position of the bottle and the

opening and closing of the nozzle for filling.

This synchronization not only needs to be

precise and accurate but also very fast. Thus

to achieve higher speeds Ethernet is widely

used in automation environment. Ethernet

only suffices for the data bandwidth but the

determinism is still not guaranteed. This is

where Ethernet POWERLINK comes into

picture for providing higher throughput,

accuracy, precision, reliability, productivity

and hard real time determinism on standard

Ethernet.

POWERLINK, the only open source

deterministic solution

Live demonstrations showcased by the partners at the event

Ninad Deshpande, Specialist – Open TechnologiesEthernet POWERLINK Standardization Group

The reign of proprietary systems for

industrial electronics is over. Openness and

real independence from these manufacturers

makes it easy for device manufacturers to

integrate POWERLINK cheaply and easily.

They enjoy this freedom of implementation

with the choice of hardware and software at

their disposal

“

”

Srinivasan Subramani, Project ManagerEmbedded systems, Barry Wehmiller International

We conducted 48 hours long test and found

a completely error free, deterministic

response from POWERLINK. The oscilloscope

test results and wireshark traces confirmed

the robustness of POWERLINK. Our engineers

were impressed with the robustness and

reliability of POWERLINK protocol

“

”

deterministic solution based on standard

Ethernet and is truly open source solution in

the market. Here, determinism is defined as

the ability of a network to send a piece of

information to a specific destination and

receive a response in a time frame that is

predictable and repeatable. With the rapid

evolution of Ethernet from Mbits/s to Gbits/s

and further with POWERLINK, the user

safeguards and future proofs his investment

as POWERLINK is ready for these evolutions.

Thus, any standard PC or any industrial PC

having an Ethernet port can be used to run

POWERLINK wi thout any hardware

modifications and it is a complete software

solution.

Barry Wehmiller International im-

plemented POWERLINK in its controllers in

India

Barry Wehmiller International is a global

consulting company providing engineering

and automation solutions for manufacturing

organizations around the world. They had

developed controllers for critical UV curing

applications for one of their customers in the

printing industry. These controllers are

equipped with multiple control interface like

analogue HMI, web HMI, TCP messaging and

E t h e r n e t P O W E R L I N K . S r i n i v a s a n

Subramani, Project Manager, Embedded

systems and Jagdish Atmakuri, Design

Engineer, from Barry Wehmiller International

shared their experience of implementing

POWERLINK and the benefits they have

gained after adopting this real t ime

deterministic technology for their

22 JUNE - JULY 2015

Performance without l imits, f lexible

topologies, machine modularity, and

advanced interaction of sensors and controls

are the requirements of modern automation

and POWERLINK sat isf ies al l these

requirements seamlessly. POWERLINK

enables the user to work with the topology

which is desired by the machine and

irrespective of the topology selected delivers

maximum performance. Redundancy is also

another fea ture in the o f fe r ing by

POWERLINK, including ring, multi-master

and media redundancy. Equipped with all

controllers. “We used openPOWERLINK

stack version v2.0.0 and achieved a

completely real time deterministic response

without any performance issues. The

protocol was very easy to implement and

took us just 2 days of training from Kalycito

to establish POWERLINK communication.”

s igh ts Sr in ivasan Subramani , ”We

conducted 48 hours long test and found a

completely error free, deterministic response

from POWERLINK. The oscilloscope test

results and wireshark traces confirmed the

robustness of POWERLINK. Our engineers

were impressed with the robustness and

reliability of POWERLINK protocol”.The

specifications and technical documentation

are well drafted and on top of it are available

freely online on the EPSG website. The

source forge forums provide a perfect arena

for availing quality and timely support while

implementation.

B&R with POWERLINK enhances system

performance

these features, POWERLINK is able to

achieve cycle times as low as 100μs. B&R

and POWERLINK coupled together provide a

c o m p l e t e s o l u t i o n w i t h m a x i m u m

performance. Alstom, a giant in the power

industry has implemented multi-master and

media redundancy with B&R hardware on

POWERLINK and achieved improved plant

efficiency, availability, and power quality.

Brückner, a company special ized in

transforming raw plastic granulate into film

offer machines for plastic packaging,

cigarette wrappers, video tapes, capacitors

and much more r e l y on B&R and

POWERLINK for providing technologically

advanced machines. By using B&R remote

IOs and ACOPOSmulti drive technology

networked over POWERLINK, Brückner

reduced their machine cost by 1/8th.Thanks

to B&R and POWERLINK they were able to

run 728 synchronized axes with a cycle time

of 400µs. “B&R provides a completely

integrated automation solution and we are

recognized for the innovations we bring to

the market. B&R is a force to reckon with

andour entire product portfolio uses

POWERLINK as the communicat ion

backbone.” says Shyam Padwal, Marketing

Manager, B&R India.

Altera provides FPGA based POWERLINK

solutions

FPGAs are enabling innovations across

industries. A wide range of critical application

demand usage of FPGAs and are in use in

fields of wireless communication, optical

Shyam PadwalMarketing Manager, B&R India

B&R provides a completely integrated

automation solution and we are recognized for

the innovations we bring to the market. B&R is

a force to reckon with and our entire product

p o r t f o l i o u s e s P O W E R L I N K a s t h e

communication backbone

“

”

transport networks, computer and storage,

military and aerospace, automotive and

industrial automation. OEMs from all

verticals can benefit from the completely

hardware independent implementation of

POWERLINK and Altera provides a perfect

F P G A p l a t f o r m f o r i t s e f f e c t i v e

implementation. “We at Altera provide a

flexible platform to support multiple

protocols on a single platform. In an attempt

to ease customer efforts for implementing

POWERLINK we provide the complete

solution from silicon to software stacks that

are fully tested and ready to use” quotes

Prasad Reddy, FAE Manager, South Asia

Pacific, Altera India. Altera offers a slew of

FPGAs, SoCs with embedded processor

systems, CPLDs, ASICs and complementary

technologies such as power solution that

meet the different price, power and

performance needs for the customers. Altera

SoCs integrate an ARM-based processor

system with all the required peripherals for

the processor and FPGA fabric with all

interconnects. This enables the customers to

build their entire system on the SoC with

increased system performance, reduced

power consumption, reduced board size and

overall reduced system cost.

Kalycito, A decade long experience in

POWERLINK implementation

Today, users demand communication speed

as low as 100µs and jitter as low as 100ns

with synchronization as low as 1µs. As far as

cycle time and achieving determinism is

concerned, it is essential to check what

affects the system performance. Skew is

another factor which is not desirable for any

system as a small amount of skew will

amount for a large value and will lead to loss

of cycles over an extended time period.

Latency needs to be minimized to reduce

response times of the application. Thus

communication protocols should be

designed adhering to these specifications in

mind. Bhagath Singh Karunakaran,

Manag ing D i rec to r, Ka l yc i to says ,

“POWERLINK is the only real time Industrial

Ethernet solution that is available open

source fo r bo th mas te r and s l ave

implementations. It is the only protocol

which provides master source code and

specifications free of cost. Another highlight

is the addition of redundancy to the master

source code. POWERLINK offers a quick

switch over in case of redundancy which is as

low as 2 POWERLINK cycles.”Kalycito helps

Prasad ReddyFAE Manager, South Asia Pacific, Altera India

We at Altera provide a flexible platform to

support multiple protocols on a single

platform. In an attempt to ease customer

efforts for implementing POWERLINK we

provide the complete solution from silicon to

software stacks that are fully tested and ready

to use

“

23JUNE - JULY 2015

POWERLINK and OPC UA: Connectivity in

compliance with Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0, the widely heralded next

industrial revolution based on the "Internet of

Things", will further boost the need for fast

and open industrial networks. At the same

time, many producers are reluctant to

connect their factory-floor equipment to

outside lines, let alone cloud-based services,

for fear of hacker or malware attacks that

could paralyze production. Nevertheless,

POWERLINK provides high speed and

uncompromised openness and whose

architecture prevents intrusion without the

need for external security measures.

With the early stages of Industry 4.0 relying

on the 'Internet of Things' for advanced and

sustainable efficiency, plants require

industrial communication mechanisms that

are not only fast and open, but highly

available as well. High speed regardless of

network size, total and complete openness,

high tolerance to electrical interference, line

and master node redundancy and inherent

security that stops attackers in their tracks –

POWERLINK fulfills all of these criteria.

OPC UA already plays a central role in the IT-

related areas of modern production systems.

semiconductor vendors, OEMs and machine

bui lders g lobal ly wi th POWERLINK

integration in their products and are one of

the main contributors to the open source

POWERLINK p ro toco l s t ack open-

POWERLINK and the POWERLINK network

configuration tool openCONFIGURATOR

both available at sourceforge.net.

Bhagath Singh KarunakaranManaging Director, Kalycito

POWERLINK is the only real time Industrial

Ethernet solution that is available open source

for both master and slave implementations. It

is the only protocol which provides master

source code and specifications free of cost.

Another highl ight is the addit ion of

redundancy to the master source code.

POWERLINK offers a quick switch over in case

of redundancy which is as low as 2

POWERLINK cycles

“

The addition of TSN and the publisher-

subscriber model will greatly expand the

range of potential OPC UA applications.

Paired with the open standards POWERLINK,

the result would be a total package for safe

and consistent Ethernet communication all

the way down to the sensor level. Thus this

would facilitate a seamless transition to

substantially faster Ethernet standards such

as POWERLINK for fieldlevel communication

and demanding motion control tasks.

Openness, no copyrights and no licenses,

complete independence in selection of

hardware, software, low cycle times, real

t ime determin is t ic communicat ion,

redundancy, and lowest cost of im-

plementation are some of the benefits users

gain with POWERLINK. POWERLINK is a

protocol which is not owned by any single

organization. It is managed by the Ethernet

POWERLINK Standardization Group (EPSG)

which was founded in 2003 in Switzerland as

an independent assoc ia t ion wi th a

democratic structure. Its goals are the

standardization, promotion and further

development of POWERLINK technology,

which was first presented to the public in

2001.