Jahanzaib Imtiaz

A Proposal for a Generic Real-Time Ethernet System

After the introduction of fieldbus technology, real-time Ethernet (RTE) systems now form the second generation of industrial communication systems (2G ICS). A lot of different approaches for RTEs appeared during the last years, most of them optimized for specific use cases or application domains. From a users perspective, the transition from a proved fieldbus system to a RTE only makes sense, if multiple system properties are improved significantly in comparison to the state-of-the-art. In order to address such main requirements of machine builders, we introduced three building blocks as key components for a generic RTE system, these includes topology-based addressing, optimized datagram transfer, and synchronous scheduling.

A performance study of Ethernet Audio Video Bridging (AVB) for Industrial real-time communication

This paper investigates the potential of the emerging Ethernet audio video bridging (AVB) in industrial networks. An analytical model of AVB is described, and AVBs priority queuing (PQ) and credit-based shaper algorithms (CBQ) are evaluated and compared with standard Ethernet.

Control-as-a-service from the cloud: A case study for using virtualized PLCs

Cloud computing has recently emerged as a new computing paradigm in many application areas comprising office and enterprise systems. It offers various solutions to provide a dynamic and flexible infrastructure to host computing resources and deliver them as a service on-demand. Since industrial automation systems of the future have to be adaptable and agile, cloud computing can be considered as a promising solution for this area. However, the requirements of industrial automation systems differ significantly from the office and enterprise world. In this paper we describe a case study that implements a concept of PLC as a service within a cloud based infrastructure and provides a performance evaluation with respect to legacy PLCs.

Using OPC-UA for the autoconfiguration of real-time Ethernet systems

In the future, production systems will consist of modular and flexible production components, being able to adapt to completely new manufacturing processes. This requirement arises from market turbulences caused by customer demands, i. e. highly customized goods in smaller production batches, or phenomenon like commercial crisis. In order to achieve adaptable production systems, one of the major challenges is to develop suitable autoconfiguration mechanisms for industrial automation systems. This paper presents a two-step architecture for the autoconfiguration of real-time Ethernet (RTE) systems. As a first step, an RTE-independent device discovery mechanism is introduced. Afterwards, it is shown how the parameters of an RTE can be configured automatically using Profinet IO as an exemplary RTE system. In contrast to the existing approaches, the proposed discovery mechanism is based on the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC-UA). In addition, a procedure to autoconfigure modular IO-Devices is introduced.

Scalability of OPC-UA down to the chip level enables “Internet of Things”

Many implementations of the OPC-UA are increasingly available. Until now, use of technologies like the OPC-UA was limited to embedded systems with a sufficient amount of memory resources. OPC-UA offers a scalable feature set that could be tailored according to application demands. We believe that a key to successfully enable Internet of Things for the industrial automation applications lies in bringing down the OPC-UA into low end resource-limited devices, such as sensors. Because the OPC-UA provides a powerful information representation that is exchangeable through interoperable services. This paper has investigated the OPC-UA as a middleware solution for such resource-limited devices. For a proof of concept we have implemented an OPC-UA server based on the “Nano Embedded Device Server profiles” of the OPC Foundation.

An optimized OPC UA transport profile to bringing Bluetooth Low Energy Device into IP networks

Because energy efficiency is gaining more importance these days and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) could be used to make use of potential everyday objects into Internet of Things (IOT) - a software, platform and vendor independent common service interface that can be used in such low resource devices has high potential. OPC UA is an emerging middleware solution that addresses the above points but is bulky due to its abundant features. Further optimization is necessary to bring the OPC UA into such resource-limited devices. We have scaled down the OPC UA protocol stack footprint down to the chip level [16]. In this paper, we propose an optimization approach to minimize the OPC UA network footprint.

A proposal to integrate process data communication to IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging (AVB)

This paper investigates prospects of the emerging IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging (AVB) Ethernet standard in industrial automation applications. The notion of a small and predictable latency is common for both industrial and multimedia (audio, video) applications. The inbuilt characteristics of 802.1 AVB that includes synchronization, real-time traffic scheduling & shaping and resource reservation makes it a real-time capable Ethernet solution, which can be used for the process control applications as well. This paper presents a way to integrate the industrial process data communication to the lower layer services of IEEE 802.1 AVB, and describes a demonstrator implemented for a proof of concept.

Approaches to reduce the latency for high priority traffic in IEEE 802.1 AVB networks

The IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging (AVB) standard is increasingly seen as a next generation real-time communication system for various application domains. The most important requirements are a short latency and a low jitter of the data transmission. One of the biggest impacts on the latency and the jitter of a reserved real-time stream is the interfering non real-time traffic. This paper presents some possible approaches under discussion within AVB community to mitigate the effect of such interference. A case study using one of the approaches is described and a simulation model is implemented as a proof of concept.

A novel method for auto configuration of Realtime Ethernet Networks

This paper describes a novel method for layer-2 auto-configuration of realtime Ethernet networks. Our approach is able to roll out local MAC addresses to the involved devices as well as to discover the topology automatically on top of LLDP. The description of the complete network topology is realized with a minimum amount of data and includes a systematically propagation towards the topology manager. A model-driven development approach has been adopted to verify the concept by using simulation technique.

Common Automation Protocol Architecture and Real-time Interface (CAPRI)

This paper describe a common reference architecture for Real-time Ethernet systems, to bridge the gap within existing Ethernet based industrial communication technologies from implementation point of view. Another objective is to enable industrial applications to benefit from emerging information technologies in other application domains. A flexible and modular architecture may enable resolving certain limitations of legacy industrial communication systems, which could increase the system’s overall productivity in many ways. The paper present the core components of the proposed architecture, together with some evaluation results and conclusions.