Ethernet-Based Industrial Protocols

Lecture 2

Dr. Kim Bunthern/Mr. It Chivorn

I4EA – Electronic and Automation
Institute of Technology of Cambodia

September, 2023
 Content

1. Introduction to Ethernet
1. Industrial Ethernet (Universal bus)
2. Ethernet Classification
3. Ethernet - Analysis
2. Ethernet Protocols
1. EntherNet/IP
2. Profinet
3. Modbus TCP/IP
3. Research Topics (Presentation)

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
1.1 Industrial Ethernet (Universal bus)
Industrial Ethernet (IE) is the use of Ethernet in an industrial environment with protocols that provide
determinism and real-time control. Protocols for Industrial Ethernet include EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP,
PROFINET, POWERLINK, SERCOS III, CC-Link IE, and Modbus/TCP. Many Industrial Ethernet protocols
use a modified MAC (Media Access Control) layer to provide low latency and determinism. Some
microcontrollers such as Sitara provide Industrial Ethernet support.
Industrial Ethernet can also refer to the use of standard Ethernet protocols with rugged connectors and
extended temperature switches in an industrial environment, for automation or process control. Components
used in plant process areas must be designed to work in harsh environments of temperature extremes,
humidity, and vibration that exceed the ranges for information technology equipment intended for installation
in controlled environments.
The use of fiber Ethernet reduces the problems of electrical noise and provides electrical isolation to prevent
equipment damage. Some industrial networks emphasized deterministic delivery of transmitted data, whereas
Ethernet used collision detection which made transport time for individual data packets difficult to estimate
with increasing network traffic. Typically, industrial uses of Ethernet employ full-duplex standards and other
methods so that collisions do not unacceptably influence transmission times.

Fiber is great for faster speeds, Copper is getting faster,

security and data delivery over but it has some notable
super-long distances. But on limitations with regard to
the flipside, it’s brittle, a bit distance. In its
unwieldy, and much more unshielded form, it can
expensive. also be prone to
interference.

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
EXAMPLE TCP TRANSACTION of Ethernet/IP

The simplified example illustrates a typical TCP transaction. In this example a network client (web browser)
initiates data transfer with a web server (such as the web server embedded within the Acromag 9xxEN and
XT series modules). The client is a PC running Internet Explorer and connected to the network via a Network
Interface Card (NIC).
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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
Ethernet Basics
Definition: Ethernet is a standard for wired communication in local area networks (LANs) using a protocol
that controls how data packets are placed on the network.
OSI Model: Explain how Ethernet operates at the Data Link Layer (Layer 2) of the OSI model.
Data Frames: Describe the structure of Ethernet data frames, including headers and payloads.

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
Ethernet Variants
Fast Ethernet: 100 Mbps data transfer rate, widely used in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Gigabit Ethernet: 1 Gbps data transfer rate, common in modern LANs and industrial applications.
10 Gigabit Ethernet: 10 Gbps data transfer rate, used in high-performance networks and data centers.

Ethernet Protocols and Standards

IEEE 802.3: IEEE standard that defines Ethernet.
Ethernet/IP: Industrial protocol that combines standard Ethernet with industrial automation applications.
Profinet: Industrial Ethernet standard used for real-time communication in automation systems.

Ethernet can be both Half-Duplex and Full-Duplex. For example if you are using Ethernet
(IEEE 802.1), the Half-Duplex bandwidth is 10 Mbps and the Full-Duplex bandwith is 20 Mbps.

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
Ethernet Cables (Fiber optic and Copper)

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
The Ethernet consortia

Ethernet/IP (not Internet Protocol), Rockwell Automation

www.rockwellautomation.com
IAONA Europe (Industrial Automation Open Networking Alliance, (www.iaona-eu.com)
ODVA (Open DeviceNet Vendors Association, www.adva.org)
CIP (Control and Information Protocol) DeviceNet, ControlNet

ProfiNet
Siemens (www.ad.siemens.de), PNO (www.profibus.com)
« Industrial Ethernet » new cabling: 9-pin D-shell connectors
« direct connection to Internet (!?) »

Hirschmann (www.hirschmann.de)
M12 round IP67 connector

Fieldbus Foundation (www.fieldbus.org): HSE FS 1.0

Schneider Electric, Rockwell, Yokogawa, Fisher Rosemount, ABB

SERCOS III (serial realtime communication system)

https://www.se.com/ww/en/

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
1.2 Ethernet Classification
Depending on the real time and cost requirements, the technologies follow different principles or approaches.
This comparison tries to group those approaches in three different classes by looking at the slave device
implementations:

Class A
Class A uses standard, unmodified
Ethernet hardware as well as standard
TCP/IP software stacks for process
communication. Of course some
implementations may have modified
„tuned“ TCP/IP stacks, which provide
better performance.
Class A approaches are also referred to
as „best effort“ approaches. The real
time performance is limited by
unpredictable delays in infrastructure
components like switches – no just due
to other traffic on the network. The by far
largest obstacle to better real time
performance however is provided by the
software stacks (TCP/UDP/IP).

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
Class B
Class B approaches still use standard, unmodified hardware, but do not use TCP/IP for process data
communication. A dedicated process data protocol is introduced, which is transported directly in the Ethernet
frame.
TCP/IP stacks may still exist, but typically their access to the Ethernet network is controlled and limited by
what can be considered a timing layer.

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
Class C
Class C approaches aim even higher with regard to performance. In order to achieve these goals, dedicated
hardware has to be used (at least on the slave device side). In case of PROFINET IRT, the Special Real-time
Ethernet Controller is more a Special Switch Device – but the result is the same: better performance due to
better hardware integration. This does not exclude the use of TCP/IP and the Internet Technologies.

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
Ethernet - another philosophy

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
1.3 Ethernet - Analysis
PLC (Programmable logic controller) communicate using one of several possible open or proprietary
protocols, such as EtherNet/IP, Modbus, Sinec H1, Profibus, CANopen, DeviceNet or FOUNDATION
Fieldbus. The idea to use standard Ethernet makes these systems more inter-operable.
Some of the advantages over other types of industrial network are:
▪ Increased speed, up from 9.6 kbit/s with RS-232 to 1 Gbit/s with Gigabit Ethernet over Cat5e/Cat6 cables
or optical fiber
▪ Increased distance
▪ Ability to use standard access points, routers, switches, hubs, cables and optical fiber
▪ Ability to have more than two nodes on link, which was possible with RS-485 but not with RS-232
▪ Peer-to-peer architectures may replace master-slave ones
▪ Better interoperability

Difficulties of using Industrial Ethernet include:

▪ Migrating existing systems to a new protocol
▪ Real-time uses may suffer for protocols using TCP
▪ Managing a whole TCP/IP stack is more complex than just receiving serial data
▪ The minimum Ethernet frame size is 64 bytes, while typical industrial communication data sizes can be
closer to 1–8 bytes. This protocol overhead affects data transmission efficiency.
▪ PROFINET RT is not low cost, requires a lot of code and is not high performance, but in the long run it will
be a success – regardless of the technology, simply due to the Siemens (+ PNO/PTO) market position, just
like Profibus.

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 1 Introduction to Ethernet
Ethernet Traffic Types
There are some common traffic types used with Ethernet. These traffic types are named accordin to the
receivers. These Ethernet Traffic Types given below:
Supported by IPv4
▪ Unicast (one-to-one) is the traffic type whose destination is one node.
▪ Broadcast (one-to-all) is the traffic type whose destination is all nodes in the network.
▪ Multicast (one-to-many) is the traffic type who se destination is a specific Multicast group members.
Supported by IPv6
▪ Anycast (one-to-any) is the traffic type that is introduced with IPv6. It is the traffic whose destination is the
closest node between multiple same IP nodes.

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
2.1 ETHERNET/IP
EtherNet/IP is an industrial Ethernet protocol. It combines traditional Ethernet with an industrial application
layer protocol, which is called Control and Information Protocol (CIP). is a communication protocol mostly
associated with Rockwell Automation for use in industrial factories.

EtherNet/IP offers reliable communication and reduced

system complexity, which has led to its wide adoption. It is
managed by ODVA (Open DeviceNet Vendors Association)
and is the current standard for industrial communication.

The physical layer conducts connection in copper wire,

fiber and wireless. Depending on the physical layer,
data link layer establishes connection based on few https://www.odva.org/technology-standards/key-technologies/ethernet-ip/
standards like IEEE 802.3 or 802.1 for copper, IEEE https://www.odva.org/technology-standards/key-technologies/common-industrial-protocol-cip/
802.3 for fiber and IEEE 802.11 for WIFI.

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
Application Layer – CIP™ – Control & Information Protocol
With CIP™, a class exists simply tocombine data for I/O messaging among common elements and the CIP™
library already contains many commonly defined objects or classes. The confusion that surrounds this topic
usually arises from the nesting of objects and classes that occurs in defining other objects and classes, and in
linking together these various objects to build larger device profiles.

EtherNet/IP, ControlNet, and DeviceNet all share the Control and Information Protocol (CIP™) at their
application layer. For example, DeviceNet is basically CIP™ running on a CAN bus. Similarly, EtherNet/IP is
CIP™ over TCP/UDP/IP. Because ControlNet, DeviceNet, and EtherNet/IP all have CIP™ in common, they
also share an extensive object library and collection of pre-defined device profiles.

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
Transport Layer – TCP- Transport Control Protocol
The Transport Control Protocol (TCP) resides one layer above the Internet Protocol (IP) and is responsible for
transporting the application data and making it secure, while IP is responsible for the actual addressing and
delivery of the data. Below is construction of a TCP/IP-ETHERNET data packet

TCP packet is inserted into the data portion of the IP packet below it. IP itself is an unsecured,
connectionless protocol and must work together with the overlaying TCP to operate. In this way, TCP is
generally considered the upper layer of the IP platform that serves to guaranty secure data transfer

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
Transport Layer – UDP – User Datagram Protocol
Like TCP, the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) resides above IP and is another protocol for transporting data,
but with the emphasis being to transport it on-time, rather than to guaranty delivery. UDP is a connectionless
protocol that simply allows one device to send a datagram to another device without guaranteed delivery, a
retry mechanism, or any acknowledgement.

EtherNet/IP uses both TCP and UDP in an intelligent way to provide more deterministic performance. That
is, time-critical implicit messages are sent using the faster UDP, while explicit messages are sent securely
using TCP. Any lost data will not prevent subsequent time-critical data from being processed with UDP. The
slower but more reliable TCP will instead ensure that a message is received by retransmitting any lost data,
but this process may not be suitable for real-time data

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
NETWORK LAYER
The Network Layer or Internet Layer resides just below the Transport Layer and is responsible for routing the
packets to the network. Although there are many network layer protocols such as ICMP, IGMP, and others,
the most important of these are IP, ARP, and RARP.

Network Layer – IP - Internet Protocol

Although EtherNet/IP, TCP/IP, and UDP/IP are named together, they are complimentary protocols. The
Internet Protocol (IP) manages the actual addressing and delivery of the data packets. IP provides a
connectionless and unacknowledged method for sending data packets between two devices on a network. IP
does not guaranty delivery of the data packet; it relies on a transport layer protocol (like TCP) or application
layer protocol (like CIP™) to do that.

IP also makes it possible to assemble an

indefinite number of individual networks
into a larger overall network, without regard
to physical implementation of the sub
networks. That is, the data is sent from one
network station to another, regardless of
these differences.

(Left-to-Right & Top-to-Bottom)

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
DATA LINK LAYER
The Data Link Layer or Host-to-Network Layer provides the protocol for connecting the host to the physical
network. Specifically, this layer interfaces the TCP/IP protocol stack to the physical network for transmitting IP
packets.

Data Link Layer – CSMA/CD – Carrier Sense Multiple Access w/CD

The data link layer also uses the CSMA/CD protocol (Carrier Sense Multiple Access w/ Collision Detection) to
arbitrate access to the shared Ethernet medium.
Recall that with CSMA/CD, any network device can try to send a data frame at any time, but each device will
first try to sense whether the line is idle and available for use. If the line is available, the device will begin to
transmit its first frame. If another device also tries to send a frame at approximately the same time (perhaps
because of cable signaling delay), then a collision occurs, and both frames are subsequently discarded. Each
device then waits a random amount of time and retries its transmission until it is successfully sent.

Data Link Layer – MAC - Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocol

The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol provides the services required to form the data link layer of
Ethernet. This protocol encapsulates its data by adding a 14- byte header containing the protocol control
information before the data and appending a 4 byte CRC value after the data. The entire frame is preceded by
a short idle period (the minimum inter-frame gap), and an 8-byte preamble.

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
2.2 PROFINET
Profinet is an industry technical standard for data communication over Industrial
Ethernet, designed for collecting data from, and controlling equipment in industrial
systems, with a particular strength in delivering data under tight time constraints.
There are 3 PROFINET-
Versions:
▪ Version 1 („Component
Based Automation“), a Class
A approach
▪ Version 2 ((Soft) Real
Time“), a Class B approach
▪ Version 3: („Isochronous
Real Time“), a Class C
approach
PNO tries to move away from
the terms RT/IRT and introduced
the term. Profinet IO for both
approaches...

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
Not all IRT devices support cycle times < 0.5 ms, e.g. Siemens Sinamics Controller. The jitter shown in the
graph above show the intended values for the end device – and do not necessarily cover the jitter caused by
the network (e.g. forwarding jitter of the switches)

The cycle time in an industrial network is the time required for data to be transmitted from a master
(controller) to all the nodes (devices) in a network, and then the updated data returned to the controller.

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
Class A - PROFINET CBA (TCP/IP – Ethernet)
Initially the PNO/PTO message was: protect your investment and continue using Profibus, for Ethernet
connectivity we provide a transparent gateway. Work on the gateway (proxy) concept was started as early as
1999. First spec (V0.9) published in March 2001 (Ethernet/IP was first introduced in 2000).

Profinet CbA (Component Based Automation) comprises more than just a communication protocol: the CbA
programming approach with graphical mapping of variables to establish communication links.

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
Class B – PROFINET RT

Siemens communicated that PROFINET

RT provides performance similar to
Profibus. Even though this is optimistic
(typically Profibus is faster and provides
better node synchronization), one can
read this statement as follows: If Profibus
performance is sufficient, but Profibus is
not expensive enough, PROFINET RT is
an alternative.
Profinet V2 was initially called SRT (Soft Real-time). The term „soft“ was later dropped for marketing reasons.
Profinet RT is also addressed as Profinet I/O (together with IRT). Siemens has started to communicate that
Profinet RT will provide similar performance as Profibus. Even though this is optimistic (typically Profibus is
faster and provides better node synchronization), one can read this statement as follows: If Profibus
performance is sufficient, but Profibus is not expensive enough, Profinet RT is an alternative ;-)

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
Class C – PROFINET IRT
PROFINET IRT (V3) is a class C approach which introduces special hardware in order to achieve sufficient
performance and synchronicity for motion control Applications.

The minimum cycle time is determined by the

approach to include generic TCP/IP traffic in a
gap wide enough for the largest Ethernet
frame.
This approach leads to limited bandwidth
utilization, since even though most applications
only have sporadic TCP/IP communication, the
bandwidth remains reserved for this kind of
traffic.
For cycle times below 250μs the so called
High-Performance-Profile has to be
implemented, which is an optional feature in
V2.3. As of Feb 2014, there are no master
devices supporting this profile. The standard
PROFINET masters from Siemens start at
250μs (Motion Controller) or at 1ms (e.g. PLC
S7-315).

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
2.3 MODBUS TCP/IP – Modbus Device Communication
Modbus TCP/IP (also Modbus-TCP) is simply the Modbus RTU protocol with a TCP interface that runs on
Ethernet. The Modbus messaging structure is the application protocol that defines the rules for organizing
and interpreting the data independent of the data transmission medium. TCP/IP refers to the Transmission
Control Protocol and Internet Protocol, which provides the transmission medium for Modbus TCP/IP
messaging.

Modbus devices communicate using a master-slave (client-server) technique in which only one device (the
master/client) can initiate transactions (called queries). The other devices (slaves/servers) respond by
supplying the requested data to the master, or by taking the action requested in the query.

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
2.3 MODBUS TCP/IP
Modbus TCP/IP uses TCP/IP and Ethernet to carry the data of the Modbus message structure between
compatible devices.
That is, Modbus TCP/IP combines a physical network (Ethernet), with a networking standard (TCP/IP), and
a standard method of representing data (Modbus as the application protocol). Essentially, the Modbus
TCP/IP message is simply a Modbus communication encapsulated in an Ethernet TCP/IP wrapper.

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 2 Ethernet Protocols
Just as with Ethernet, Modbus is freely available, accessible to anyone, and widely supported by many
manufacturers of industrial equipment. It is also easy to understand and a natural candidate for use in
building other industrial communication standards. With so much in common, the marriage of the Modbus
application protocol with traditional IEEE 802.3 Ethernet transmission forms a powerful industrial
communication standard in Modbus TCP/IP.

And because Modbus TCP/IP shares the same physical and data link layers of traditional IEEE 802.3
Ethernet and uses the same TCP/IP suite of protocols, it remains fully compatible with the already installed
Ethernet infrastructure of cables, connectors, network interface cards, hubs, and switches.

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 Questions
1. What is the primary purpose of Ethernet-based industrial protocols in automation systems, and how do
they differ from standard Ethernet networks?
Ethernet-based industrial protocols facilitate communication between industrial devices, such as PLCs,
sensors, and HMIs, in automation systems. Unlike standard Ethernet networks, industrial protocols are
designed for real-time communication, determinism, and reliability, catering to the specific requirements of
industrial applications.

2. Explain the key components of an Ethernet data frame. How does understanding data frames
contribute to efficient communication in industrial networks?
An Ethernet data frame consists of a header, data payload, and trailer. Understanding data frames is
crucial as it allows devices to interpret and process data efficiently. Devices can identify the source and
destination of messages, ensuring accurate and timely data exchange in industrial networks.

3. How does Modbus TCP/IP facilitate communication between devices in industrial automation? Provide
examples of Modbus function codes and their applications.
Modbus TCP/IP operates on a client-server model, allowing devices to read and write data using function
codes. For example, Function Code 03 is used for reading analog output values, and Function Code 06 is
used for writing to a single register. This simplicity makes Modbus TCP/IP suitable for various applications,
such as reading sensor values and controlling actuators.

4. Compare and contrast Ethernet/IP and Profinet protocols. What are their unique features, and in what
industrial scenarios are they commonly used?
Ethernet/IP and Profinet are both popular Ethernet-based industrial protocols. Ethernet/IP is known for its
flexibility and compatibility with various devices and is commonly used in discrete manufacturing. Profinet,
on the other hand, is favored for its real-time capabilities and is often used in process automation
applications.
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 End of Lecture

Thank You!

Dr. Kim Bunthern/Mr. It Chivorn Industrial Network Protocols Sept 20, 2023