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Timing performance of a hybrid wired/wireless PROFIBUS-based Network
Ref: HURRAY-TR-0307       Publication Date: 1, Jul, 2003

Abstract:
The integration of wireless communication and multimedia into PROFIBUS is reflected in the IST (Information Society Technology) RFieldbus project (High Performance Wireless Fieldbus in Industrial Multimedia-Related Environment). Our project addresses the analysis and measurement of the timing behaviour of such a hybrid network, in a manufacturing automation test bed. This field trial was implemented to validate the RFieldbus approach for integrated wireless and wired communication in the factory floor, and to support multimedia streams and mobile nodes. A System Planning Application (SPA) is used to compute all the necessary timing parameters (both PROFIBUS and RFieldbus-specific) for the real-time operation of the network, depending on the network topology, on the characteristics of the message streams and on the types of physical media(wired/wireless). The worst-case values obtained (duration of message transactions,...) are compared with the real traffic performance, by means of a PROFIBUS Network Analyser. This analysis was then used to draw some conclusions about the pessimism introduced by the SPA (worst-case values) and about the real timing response for different networks(topology, nodes, streams, ...). In RFieldbus, the intermediate systems used to relay the network traffic between wired and wireless PROFIBUS operate at the Physical Layer level. In spite of their repeating operation, there are several important parameters that must be monitored. For this purpose, another objective of the project was to extend an already existing local monitoring application to remote multiple IS monitoring, via TCP/IP.

Steve Behaeghel

,

Katrijn Van Nieuwenhuyse

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