UNIT 5 NETWORKING

IEEE Standards - Networking of sensors, actuators

and controllers - Introduction to Field bus
communication and its Protocols –
Field bus, CAN bus, PROFI bus, Ethernet, MOD bus,
Ethernet, OSI/ISO, ICCP, DTE/DCE and RTU
Introduction to Robotics, Work volume, End
Effectors, Robotic sensors and application in
industries.
Networking of Field Devices
via Fieldbus
 1. Introduction:
Embedded electronics technology has given rise to significant rise in the number
of automatic devices for industrial data acquisition, transmission, monitoring,
diagnostics, control and supervision.
Each of these devices is configurable and capable of two way communication
with other devices.
Effective use of their capabilities can only be enabled by reliable and high speed
communication architecture for extensive and rapid information exchange among
automation devices for coordination and control.
Below we introduce some of the major motivations that led to major users and
suppliers from the U.S., Japan and Europe coming together to establish the
Fieldbus Foundation in 1994.
Their objective has been to develop a worldwide, unified specification of
"Fieldbus", a network communication architecture for field devices for process
control and manufacturing automation.
Motivations for the Fieldbus
Among the major motivations for the Fieldbus are the following.
Replacement of analog and digital (serial) point-to-point communication
technology with much superior digital communication network for high
speed ubiquitous and reliable communication within a harsh industrial
environment.
Enhanced data availability from smart field bus devices needed for
advanced automation functions such as control, monitoring, supervision
etc.
Easy configurability and interoperability of system components leading
to an easily installable, maintainable and upgradeable open system that
leverages the computing and networking hardware and software solutions
In industrial automation systems, the field signals have been
traditionally transmitted to the control room using point-to-point
communication methods that employ analog technologies such as
the 4-20 mA current loop or, more recently, digital ones such as the
RS-422 or RS-485.
The main disadvantages of this are the highly increased cost of
cabling due to the need for a separate pair of wires for each device
connected to the mainframe.
Apart from this, with 4-20 mA analog current loop, signals can be
transmitted only in one direction.
With the need for more complex monitoring and control of a process
plant, installation and maintenance of these point to point
communication media and their signal integrity become more and
more difficult.
As an alternative the network communication architecture presents
an attractive option.
Firstly the cabling requirements are marginally increased as more
and more devices are added to the network.
Secondly, a vast array of high speed networking technologies is
available at attractive costs from the computer market.
Thirdly, with the addition of intelligent devices, such a system
enables advanced monitoring supervision and control, leading to
improvements in productivity, quality and reliability of industrial
operations.
Fieldbus is a standard for Local
Area Network (LAN) of industrial
automation field devices that
enables them to
intercommunicate.
Typical Fieldbus devices are
sensors, actuators, controllers of
various types, such as PLCs, and
DCS, and other computer systems
such as human-machine
interfaces, process management
servers etc.
It includes standards for the
network protocol as well as
standards for the devices on the
network.
Fieldbus allows many input and output variables to be transmitted
on the same medium such as, a pair of metallic wires, optical fiber or
even radio, using standard digital communication technologies such
as baseband time-division multiplexing or frequency division
multiplexing.
Thus sensors transmit the measured signal values as well as other
diagnostic information; the controllers compute the control signals
based on these and transmit them to actuators.
Further, advanced features such as process monitoring can be carried
out leading to increased fault tolerance. Online process auto-tuning
can be performed leading to optimized performance of control
loops.
Table 1 compares some of the key features of 4-20mA and Fieldbus technology
Fieldbus becomes cost-effective only beyond a certain scale of operations.
Fieldbus technology was designed for process control applications.
The following special protocol used in the field bus, not found in other
Protocols:
Control algorithms may be in field-mounted Devices, central controlled or a combination of
both.
The End User does not have to be concerned with Device numerical address allocation. The
Protocol handles this task, so 'plug and play' services are available for commissioning,
modification and replacement.
Devices do not have to be 'configured' before they are attached to the network.
Device Definition and Function Blocks create a standard vendor-independent device
interface for each device type which, in turn, facilitate installation, commissioning and
upgradation of multi-vendor applications.
The Physical Layer of the Protocol was designed from the outset to cope with installed cables
and flammable atmospheres (hazardous areas).
Both precise cyclic updates as well as acyclic and sporadic communications are catered for
within the Protocol.
Each variable transmitted on the Fieldbus carries with it tags indicating the current health of
the source. Using this information, recipient Devices can take appropriate action
immediately (for example switch to Manual, Off-line, etc.).
2. Fieldbus Topology
 As shown in Figure, Fieldbus generally uses one of the two topologies - Bus and Tree.

With the Bus Topology, devices are connected to the network 'back-bone'. Either through a
'Drop Cable' Device, or are directly connected to the Bus by a 'Splice' connection.

The Tree arrangement is used

where a number of Devices share a
similar location remote from the
equipment room.
A junction box, installed at the
geographic center of gravity of the
Devices, communicates with each
Device is connected to it via a
cable.
In general Fieldbuses can use a
combination of both topologies.
Thus, trees can be hung from
network buses.
3. Architecture of the Fieldbus

The Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) model published by the International

Standards Organization is a well known definition of network
communications based on seven generic layers.
It defines seven generic 'Layers' required by a communication standard
capable of supporting vast networks.
The seven layers of the OSI model with their functions:
7- Application layer is to provide the services that are required by specific
applications.
6- Presentation layer is responsible for the data interpretation, which
allows for interoperability among different equipment's.
5- Session layer is concerned with any execution of remote actions.
4- Transport layer is responsible for the end-to-end communication
control.
3- Network layer is concerned with logical addressing process of nodes
and routing schemes.
2- Datalink layer is responsible for the access to the communication
medium, and for the logical transfer of the data.
1- Physical layer is concerned with the way that the communication is
done physically.
The first two layers, namely the Physical and the Data Link layers
incorporate the technologies to realize a reliable, relatively error free
and high speed communication channel among the communicating
devices.
It provides support for all standard and medium dependent
functions for physical communication.
DLL actually manages the basic communication protocol as well as
error control set up by higher layers.
In Fieldbus, since the communication takes place over a fixed network routing and
transport layers are made redundant.
Moreover, in an industrial control environment, the network software entities or
processes are also generally invariant. Under such a situation, requirements of the
session and the presentation layers are also minimized.
 Therefore, the third, fourth, fifth and sixth layers of the ISO protocols have been
omitted in the Field bus protocol.
In fact the requirements of the omitted layers, although limited, have been included
within the Fieldbus Application Layer (FAL) (7), which is sub-divided into two sub-layers,
namely the Fieldbus Message Sub-layer (FMS) Fieldbus Message Sub-layer (FMS) that
builds up a message data structure for communication as per requirements of user layer
and includes the roles of the session and presentation layers of the ISO-OSI model ,
and the Field Access Sub-layer (FAS) that manages the functionality of the networking
and transport layers to the extent needed and provides a virtual communication
channel.
Thus, the Foundation Fieldbus utilizes only three ISO model Layers (1, 2 and 7), plus an
additional Layer referred to as the User Layer (8).
In the Fieldbus standard, the User Layer (8) is also included in the
specification.
In this it differs from other communication standards.
A typical function of the User Layer is to define control tasks for a
process plant.
These are achieved through abstract software units called Function
Blocks.
Defining the User Layer functionality in terms of the open and
published standards of Function Blocks enables interoperability of
devices from different vendors.
This is because any two devices that implement the standard abstract
function block interface would interoperate, irrespective of their
internal implementations.
Fieldbus Foundation has standardised a range of Function Block
communications interfaces.
The content of a Function Block is not standardised.
For example: Company A and Company B may both supply PID
control algorithms within their products. The Fieldbus Foundation
specification dictates how each vendor's PID Function Block shall
communicate Set-point, Controlled Variable, P, I &D constants etc.,
but not how the Function Block's internal algorithms would be
realised.
 4. The Physical Layer
Fieldbus allows options for three types of communication
media at this layer, namely, Wire, Fiber-optic and Radio.
The Physical Layer is sub-divided into an upper section (the
Media Independent Sub-Layer MIS) and a lower section which
is media specific.
The MIS ensures that the selected Media interfaces in a consistent
way with the Data Link Layer (2), regardless of the media used.
The lower sections define the communications mechanism and
media. For example, for wire medium they describe signal
amplitudes, communication rate, waveform, wire types, etc.
An area-wide network can be implemented through the
compartmentalization of the bus system in the bus segments that can
be connected over repeaters. Standard-transmission rates can be in
the range of from about 10KBaud 10 MBaud.
The topology of the single bus segment is the line structure (up to
1200 m) with short drop cables (<0.3m).
Transmission distances to 12 km are possible by electrical
configuration and to 23.8 km with optical configuration. The
distances are dependent on the transmission rate.
 With the help of repeaters, a tree structure can also be constructed as
shown:
 The maximum number of
nodes per bus segment
amounts to 32.
 More lines can connected
under one another through
performance enhancements
(repeaters) where by it is noted
that each repeater counts as a
node.
 In total a maximum of 128
nodes are connectable (over all
bus segments).
6. The Data Link Layer
As the medium of transmission is a bus network, all device
communications take place over the same physical medium.
A mechanism is therefore necessary to ensure that it is
shared effectively without collisions, i.e., when one device
transmits none other does.
The Fieldbus Data Link Layer protocol is a hybrid protocol
that is capable of supporting both scheduled and
asynchronous transfers.
 Its maximum packet size is 255 bytes.
It defines three types of data link layer entities, a Link
Master(LM), a Basic Device(BD), and a bridge.
Link master devices are capable of assuming the role of the bus master, called the
link active scheduler (LAS). At any point of time only one of the LM devices act as
the LAS. This is depicted in Figure.
Basic devices are those devices not capable of becoming the LAS. They receive and
send published data, and they receive and use tokens. When they hold the token,
they are capable of initiating communications with all devices on the network
Bridge devices connect link segments together.
Bridged networks are configured into a spanning tree in which there is a
single root link segment and a series of downstream link segments.
Bridges interconnect the link segments.
Each bridge may have a single upstream port (in the direction of the root)
and multiple downstream ports (away from the root). The root port
behaves as a basic device and the downstream ports are each the LAS for
their downstream link.
Bridges are responsible for republishing scheduled transfers and
forwarding all other traffic. Configured republishing and forwarding tables
identify the packets that are to receive and republish or forward.
Bridges are also responsible for synchronizing time messages received
on their root port before regenerating them on their downstream ports.
6.1 The Link Active Scheduler (LAS):
One of the devices connected to the Fieldbus acts as the Link Active Scheduler
(LAS). This decides which Device transmits next and for how long, thereby avoiding
the collision of messages on the Bus.
The LAS is responsible for the following list of tasks.
1. It detects the connection and disconnection of devices to the network, in order
to maintain a "Live List" of functional devices and ensure they receive the "Right to
transmit" when appropriate. Redundant LAS's maintain their own Live Lists in
readiness to take over when the on-line LAS fails
2. It distributes time on the bus that can be used for scheduling and time stamping.
3. It polls device buffers for data according to a predefined schedule. This capability
is used to support publisher/subscriber virtual communication relationships.
4. It distributes a token to devices in its live list that they can use for asynchronous
transfers. This capability is used to support client/server and report distribution
virtual communication relationships.
The LAS controls all cyclic data transmissions in this manner. In free time the
LAS passes a message called the Pass Token (PT) to each Device in turn
allowing them to use this idle period.
As mentioned before, the Link Active Scheduler (LAS) controls
communications traffic on the Fieldbus. This is also called "Bus master
function".
The active LAS grants a "right to transmit" to each device on Fieldbus in a
pre-defined manner. Devices other than LAS can communicate only when
they have the "right to transmit".
There are two ways of granting a "right to transmit". One is a polling
method, which grants a right to transmit in sequence to each device.
Another is a time slot method, which grants a right to transmit at a fixed
time interval.
The LAS uses these two methods combined to meet the requirements of
precise cyclic updates and unscheduled traffic, for example, alarm reporting.
6.1 Cyclic Communication:
Typically, cyclic communications in industrial operations involving input output
operations related to process control loops or PLC scan cycles.
Such communications must be performed at precise update rates.
The LAS meets the requirement of precise cyclic updates of variables by issuing
a "Compel Data" message (called the CD Token), to each source of data
according to a fixed schedule. On receiving the CD, the addressed device
transmits the current data on the bus.
This message contains a reference to the source of the data. Any other device
on the bus requiring the data takes a copy for its own use, for example an HMI
or a control loop.
Note that only one transmission is required to satisfy many destinations. The
device transmitting the data is referred to as the "Publisher" and those who
take copies are called "Subscribers".
The publisher may not know which devices are subscribers. The publisher's
data is referred to as a Data Transfer Process Data Unit, or DT for short.
 If a control loop requires a measured variable to be updated on a cyclic basis, the
LAS instructs the source of the signal to transmit the variable by sending a
special message called the Compel Data (CD) token. On receiving this message,
the source transmits the variable on the bus. All devices on the bus receive the
message, but only those with a use for the information take a copy.
In Figure, the Process Variable
(PV) sensor transmits the
measured variable when it
receives the CD token.
This is referred to as 'Publishing'
the data. The control algorithm
in the control valve copies it, as
it is a Subscriber to this
information.
The HMI may also copy it for
display and archiving purposes,
but only one transmission of the
PV is required.
6.2. Acyclic/Unscheduled Communication:
Apart from cyclic communications, requirements for acyclic
communications arise to handle sporadic process related events, such as,
Alarm
Operator Data Update
Trend Data Update
Set Point changes
Controller Tuning
Once the requirements for cyclic data transmission have been met, the
LAS will issue a Pass Token (PT) to each device in turn, thereby allowing
them access to the bus to transmit data (a DT) or request data from
another device, utilizing the bus up to an allocated time limit.
 6.3 Macro Cycle and Elementary Cycle
communication tasks related to sporadic
events, such as alarm reporting and operator
changes of set points, must be scheduled.
The LAS therefore organizes its overall
schedule communication tasks in the system
in “Macro Cycles”.
The duration of each Macro Cycle is further
subdivided into a number of “Elementary
Cycles”. This is shown in Figure
Each EC within an MC begins with the set of periodic tasks that is to
be scheduled within that EC according to its update time period.
The EC is chosen to be of such a duration that even after processing
of the periodic tasks some time is left for servicing aperiodic tasks,
should it be necessary, due to the occurrence of some event in the
system.
 7. The Application Layer
The objective of the Application Layer is to convert data and requests for
services coming from the User Application (Layer 8), into demands on the
communication system in the Layers below, and to provide the reverse
service for received messages.
Thus the application layer abstracts the technical details of the network
from the user layer which can view the network devices to which
communication is needed as if they are connected by virtual point to
point communication channels.
The Application Layer is subdivided into two sublayers namely the
Fieldbus Access Sublayer (FAS) and the Fieldbus Message Sublayer (FMS).
7.1 Fieldbus Access Sublayer:
The FAS sits in-between the FMS and the DLL. The FAS provides three
fundamental kinds of communications.
The services offered by the higher layers such as the FMS are realized
by the FAS using one of these modes of communication. They are
described below
1. One-to-one Bi-directional (QUB)
2. One-to-Many Unidirectional 1 (BNU)
3. One-to-Many Unidirectional 2 (QUU)
7.2 The Fieldbus Message Sublayer (FMS) :
The FMS acts as the interface between the User Layer and FAS. There is
a logical framework called Virtual Field Device (VFD), which manages
various functions and parameters at the user layer.
A Fieldbus Device must have at least two VFD's, one for administering
the network, the other for the control of the system or function blocks.
The former has the parameters related to setting up the communication,
the latter has the parameters related to Function Blocks defined by user
layer and required by the control application.
The process control oriented VFD in a Fieldbus device is its Function
Block Application Process (FBAP). Conceptually the Fieldbus specification
allows for the development of other Application Processes in the future,
for example a PLC Application Process might be defined.
In one field device, there are hundreds of parameters, such as the name
of apparatus, an address, status variables and operating modes,
function blocks, and those composed of data files.
These parameters are defined as the objects in a VFD. They can be
treated systematically, and are independent of the specification of the
physical device. Each VFD is an "object" and within it there are other
objects.
An index of these objects, referred to as the Object Dictionary (OD) is
provided within the VFD. It details each object within the VFD, their
data types and definition.
When another device, say a HMI host, wishes to access this data it can
interrogate the VFD to determine what is available, its format etc..
This facility aids interoperability as well as automated configurability.
Introduction to historical background of Process
and Manufacturing industry communications
development

Introduction to the Distributed Computer Controlled Systems (DCCS)

communications that are used to connect various industrial systems, or
what are known as FieldBuses.
Definition of a Fieldbus.
The augmented term Fieldbus is consisting of two terms,
Field and Bus [Fieldbus Introduction].
The meaning of Field, as defined in industrial world, is a
geographical or contextual limited area. From the industry
point of view the Field is an abstraction of the plant levels.
As for the term Bus is a well-known word in computer
science as a set of common line that electrically (or even
optically) connects various units (circuits) in order to
transfer the data among them.
The origin of the fieldbus was to replace any point-to-point links
between the field devices (Field Devices are simply the Sensors
and Actuators of the plant) and their controllers (like PLC's, CNC's
…etc.) by a digital single link on which all the information is
transmitted serially and multiplexed in time.
The fieldbus transfers, in most cases, this information in small-
sized packets in serial manner.
Choosing the serial transmission has many merits in comparison
with other kinds of transmission like parallel transmission.
For instance, the sequential or serial transmission reduces the
total required number of the connecting lines over greater
distances than that of the point-to-point or even parallel
transmissions.
A set of rules must be defined in order to accomplish data
transfer between the units along the bus.
This set of rules is called Communication Protocol or just
the Protocol.
This is unlike the case of the ordinary point-to-point
transmission where any two connected entities send and
receive data from each other whenever the data is available.
The protocol is responsible for two important rules on the
bus, the mechanism that any unit can acquire or seize the
bus (from the network terminology this means the way of
Medium Access), and the synchronization between those
multi-units on the bus.
There are three main issues that must be considered when designing
the any DCCS, which are:
1- The communication protocol used.
2- The interoperability of the units.
3- The topology of the network used.
An Introduction to Industrial Systems Communications:
• In general the industry can be divided in two categories; which are the
Process, and the Manufacturing
• The process industry, deals with processes, continuous, or
discontinuous, which have very large material flows and often have
strict safety requirements (e.g. power generation, cement kilns,
petrochemical production).
• While the manufacturing industry, is concerned with the production
of discrete objects. Achieving the maximum throughput of produced
goods is, normally, very important aspect in the industrial systems.
• The industrial systems faced the needs to enhancement in production
monitoring and quality control and in the same time maintaining the
costs of all this as low as possible.
• So any operation that runs manually had to be replaced with
a faster, and more reliable automated operation.
• This also provides both the factories and the plants with
necessary monitoring which they both sought for better
supervisory and quality control.
• Introducing all this number of automated unites into the
factories needed an efficient method to connect them
together, to communicates with each other, and to transfer
the various supervisory data to the monitors. This leads to
the introduction of the communications networks into the
factories.
Process Industry Communications: a
Historical background
• The process industry communications developed in the last four
decades in four main steps.
• Each step introduced a nearer control to the field devices or more
distribution of the many tasks of the control and/or supervisory.
• The first step was a star topology that connects the Field Devices
(FD's) into single mainframe computer in the control room.
• This mainframe computer had to make all the control and
supervisory tasks.
• To accomplish these tasks,
the mainframe had to
transfer the required data
from and to the field devices
using the traditional point-
to-point methodology.
• To see an example of this
configuration see Fig. 1.1.
• This configuration called the
Centralized configuration.
• This same configuration was
famous at the 60's of the last
century.
There are several disadvantages associated with such a centralized
architecture system we listed below:
1- The complexity of the wiring was so high and difficult to be re-
installed, and above this they were expensive.
2- The high cost of the mainframes that are doing the control tasks
were also important issue.
3- The mainframe failure represented a much higher risk to the system
as it can lead toward the collapsing of the whole system.
4- The lack of standards leads to the impossibility of interchanging
some elements with faster or more reliable ones.
• The second step of the
process industry
communications
development was the division
of the supervisory and the
control tasks into two or
more controllers.
• Each controller now has its
own field devices that
attached to it using the old
point-to-point way.
• Fig. 1.2. to see the example of
this configuration which was
known as the Hierarchal
Architecture
• In turn, and as we see from the figure these controllers are attached
to one computer called the management information system.
• These controllers were placed in the same old control room with the
management information system computer.
• The period which witnessed the prosperity of such architecture was
the early the 70's of the twenty century. One thing is sure that is the
fault tolerance now become easier with this hierarchy.
• The great revolution of the Integrated circuits (IC's) made the next
third step of the process industry communications became true.
• This revolution made it possible for more distribution of the tasks.
• What is more the performance got better and the total cost reduced a
lot.
• Now the controllers communicated with each other via serial digital
network.
• Furthermore the controllers were placed nearer to the field devices
which reduced the complexity and the costs of wirings, as the length
of the cables are shortened.
• This happened during the mid of the 70's of the last century.
• Unfortunately, the field devices are still point-to-point wired to the
controllers.
• These controllers are called the local controllers to differentiate
between them and the other controllers that might be in the control
room.
• Also, the control room contains now two independent units; one is
the Operator Consol, and the other is the Supervisory Computer.
• These two units are attached to each other via the same serial digital
network that allows them to communicate with local controllers.
• As an example of the first distributed system of this kind for process
control was the (TDC 2000 system) introduced in 1975 by Honeywell
• The semi-final stage of the industrial process took place in the early
1980's. By then the number of field devices has growing incredibly.
• This made the system designers to connect these devices via serial
digital network.
• Refer to Fig. 1.4. as it shows an example of this modern architecture.
• The introduction of digital network simplified the cabling and wirings
of the system leading to ease of maintenance.
• The network that connects these field devices called FieldBus. We
have already talked about the fieldbus definition early in this chapter.
Manufacturing industry: a Historical
background
• After we talked about the process industry and its communications,
we now move to the second category of the Industry that is the
Manufacturing industry and its relevant communications.
• The manufacturing industry and its communications developed
significantly in the last four decades along with the process industry.
• The development of both was motivated by the need of lower
production cost while maintaining high performance and good quality
control.
• From the 50's to the early 70's of the last twentieth century the
manufacturing plants were consisted of many isolated production units
which called cells.
• During this period the automation development was limited to these cells
only as independent islands.
• By the mid 70's of the last century, the need to improve the production
monitoring and the miscellaneous control functions leaded the way to
connect the production islands with each other.
• This means that the manufacturing industry like the process industry
directed towards the distributed architecture. Fig.1.5. shows the trend
towards the distributed architecture in the manufacturing industry.
• What is more, Fig. 1.6. shows the fully modern distributed manufacturing
architecture.
• This hierarchy also is known as the Computer Integrated Manufacturing
(CIM).
The CIM defined at least three levels of interconnection as depicted in
Fig.1.6. Those levels are:
• Factory Level (Level 2): this level is responsible to connect the
different areas within the factory, (e.g. management, product
development, maintenance, etc.)
• Cell Level (Level 1): in this level we are connecting various
automation equipment's at the factory floor4 (Robot Controllers,
PLCs5 , CNCs6 , … etc.).
• Sensor/Actuator Level (Level 0): in this level we are to link sensors
and actuators to the controllers that are found in level 1.
• Like the process industry, the cabling and wirings problems faced the
interconnection of the manufacturing industry layers.
• Many numbers of solutions were presented to resolve these problems all
were based on the serial digital networks, which at this time were famous.
• They start with a general purpose LAN networks at level 2.
• This solution did fit with the networks in both level 1 and level 0.
• These levels required special communication requisites.
• For example at those levels the data transfer rate is rather high and its
packets are small.
• This can not accommodated by the of-shelf traditional LAN’s.
• From all what we just mentioned the need to invent new special networks
aroused to connect level 1, and finally level 0, at the same time .
• Those new networks were called FieldBuses.
• We needed a new architecture that combines all this communication
protocols.
• This new hierarchy is called the CIM or Computer Integrated
Manufacturing architecture and can be seen in Fig.1.6.
• This architecture organizes the level of factory communication
systems and was initially derived from the MAP or the Manufacturing
Automation Protocol project.
• This project was initiated by North American industrial companies
that leaded by General Motors (GM) at 1980.
• The main target of this group is to define a new open standard for the
communications in the factory that can allow the interoperability
(compatibility) between many components that came from different
manufacturers.
• At the end we would like to add that the fieldbuses play a major role
in the modern industry automation development.
• This is not everything, but it takes a prominent place in
interconnecting advanced real-time distributed systems that are used
in avionics, data acquisition, and the modern automotive applications.
• The fieldbus wide-area of application increased the pressure to define
a new standard from the user end side.
• This will allow more compatibility among different equipment
vendors, leading to more reduction in costs and more and more
improvement in performance.
• In addition to all this, it will give the user more freedom in choosing
the appropriate fieldbus protocol that best matches his needs without
changing the whole automation system hierarchy.
• Fig.1.7. summarizes
the difference
between the old
point-to-point
hierarchy and the
fieldbus hierarchy
[Fieldbus
Introduction].
CAN BUS PROTOCOL
Intro to CAN Bus:
CAN (Controller Area Network) is a two-wire differential serial communication
protocol used for real-time control.
The CAN Bus Protocol was originally developed for the Automotive Industry -
in order to connect the transmission, airbags, antilock braking/ABS, cruise
control, electric power steering, audio systems, power windows, doors, mirror
adjustment, battery and recharging systems for hybrid/electric cars, etc.
CAN is a multi-master (Peer-to-peer network) message broadcast
system that specifies a maximum signalling rate from 125kbps to 1
Mbps. It provides for 2048 different message identifiers. 
CAN was developed by Robert Bosch GmbH in 1983.
CAN bus is one of five protocols used in the on-board diagnostics (OBD)-II
vehicle diagnostics standard. Each year, about 1 billion CAN nodes are sold.
Competitive Advantage and Application
Benefits:
Low Cost: ECUs (ECU = Electronic Control Units) communicate via a single
CAN interface, i.e. not direct analogue signal lines, reducing errors, weight,
costs.
Centralized: The CAN bus system allows for central error diagnosis and
configuration across all ECU.
Robust: The system is robust towards failure of subsystems and
electromagnetic interference.
Efficient: CAN messages are prioritized via IDs so that the highest priority
IDs are non-interrupted.
Flexible: Each ECU contains a chip for receiving all transmitted messages,
decide relevance and act accordingly - this allows easy modification and
inclusion of additional nodes
Fig. 1: Example of CAN and Without CAN in automotive application
CAN Bus is used extensively in:
1. Transportation systems (rail vehicle, aircraft, marine, etc.)
2. Industrial machine control systems
3. Home and building automation (e.g. HVAC, elevators)
4. Mobile machines (construction and agriculture equipment)
5. Medical devices and laboratory automation, as well as in many
other embedded and deeply embedded applications.
System Components and Network Structure

Fig. 2: CAN BUS OSI Architecture

 CAN Bus Types

CAN High Speed (CAN 2.0B) CAN Low Speed (CAN 2.0A) CAN FD
(Flexible Data Rate)
Speed: Up to 1Mbps Speed: Up to 125Kbps Speed: Up to 15Mbps

Range: 40m Range: 500m Range 10m

29bit Message Identifier 11bit Message Identifier

Termination with 120 Ω overall termination resistance

Resistor should be about 100 Ω
Fig. 3: DB9 CAN BUS Network Wiring Diagram
Is CAN Synchronous or Asynchronous?
CAN data transmission uses a lossless bit-wise arbitration method of
contention resolution.
This arbitration method requires all nodes on the CAN network to be
synchronized to sample every bit on the CAN network at the same time.
Therefore, some call CAN synchronous. (Unfortunately, the term
synchronous is imprecise since the data is transmitted without a clock signal
in an asynchronous format)
All nodes are connected to each other through a two-wire bus. The wires
are a twisted pair with a 120 Ω (nominal) characteristic impedance.
NOTE: The CAN bus must be terminated. The termination resistors are
needed to suppress reflections as well as return the bus to its recessive or
idle state.
Topology:

CAN allows multiple devices (referred to as "nodes"), two or more nodes are required on the
CAN network to communicate.
The complexity of the node can range from a simple I/O device or embedded computer or a
gateway.
Each node requires a:
1. Central processing unit: microprocessor, or host processor
2. CAN controller: often an integral part of the microcontroller
3. CAN Transceiver: Defined by ISO 11898-2/3 Medium Access Unit [MAU] standards.
How many nodes can you have?
1. In CAN open, there are unique addresses
available for up to 127 nodes on the bus.

2. However, the practical physical limit of nodes

is about 110 units per bus.

3. In J1939, there are 253 unique addresses

available for the bus.

Fig. 5: CAN NODE

How does the Data Transmission Mechanism work?
The CAN specifications use the terms "dominant" bits and "recessive"
bits.
Dominant is a logical 0 (actively driven to a voltage by the transmitter)
Recessive is a logical 1 (passively returned to a voltage by a resistor)
Idle state is represented by the recessive level (Logical 1)
If one node transmits a dominant bit and another node transmits a
recessive bit, then there is a collision and the dominant bit "wins".
A 'message' is packet of data that carries the information to be
exchanged between the nodes. Each message in CAN has a unique
identification number.
With a message-based protocol, other nodes can be added without re-
programming since the units connected to the bus have no identifying
information - like node addressing.
So, there is no change needed in the software and hardware of any of the
units connected on the bus.
Arbitration is the process of the negotiation between the devices and
decides which of them can take over the bus for itself
To ensure there are enough transitions to maintain synchronization, a bit of
opposite polarity is inserted after five consecutive bits of the same polarity.
This practice is called bit-stuffing, and is necessary due to the non-return
to zero (NRZ) coding used with CAN.
The stuffed data frames are destuffed by the receiver.
Network Basics: Ethernet Protocol
• The first two layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model
deal with the physical structure of the network and the means by
which network devices can send information from one device on a
network to another. By far, the most popular set of protocols for the
Physical and Data Link layers is Ethernet.
• Ethernet has been around in various forms since the early 1970s.
The current incarnation of Ethernet is defined by the IEEE standard
known as 802.3.
• Various flavors of Ethernet operate at different speeds and use
different types of media. However, all the versions of Ethernet are
compatible with each other, so you can mix and match them on the
same network by using devices such as bridges, hubs, and switches
to link network segments that use different types of media.
• The actual transmission speed of Ethernet is measured in
millions of bits per second, or Mbps.
• Ethernet comes in three different speed versions: 10 Mbps,
known as Standard Ethernet; 100 Mbps, known as Fast
Ethernet; and 1,000 Mbps, known as Gigabit Ethernet. 
• Network transmission speed refers to the maximum speed
that can be achieved over the network under ideal
conditions.
• Actual throughput of an Ethernet network rarely reaches this
maximum speed.
• Ethernet operates at the first two layers of the OSI model —
the Physical and the Data Link layers.
• However, Ethernet divides the Data Link layer into two
separate layers known as the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer
and the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer.