Fieldbus associations collaborate on test plan for TSN

The Avnu Alliance, CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA), ODVA, OPC Foundation and PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) have jointly announced that they are collaborating to develop a single conformance test plan for the IEEE/IEC 60802 Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) Profile for Industrial Automation. The test plan will be used as a base test by all the participating organisations and made available to the broader industrial automation ecosystem. This collaboration contributes towards end-user confidence that 60802-conformant devices from different manufacturers which support different automation protocols will coexist reliably at the TSN level on shared networks, including with devices using TSN for applications other than automation.

The focus of the collaboration is to work together towards a jointly agreed and owned test plan for the industrial automation market. This formal collaboration provides value by creating a structure in which all these organisations can work together and exchange ideas towards the end goal of interoperability and coexistence on open, standard networks for all protocols, without needing to establish a separate, formal organisation. For convenience, the collaboration activities will be referred to as TIACC (TSN Industrial Automation Conformance Collaboration).

The TIACC marks a commitment by these organisations to develop an interoperable ecosystem of devices from different manufacturers to comply with the IEC/IEEE Standards Association 60802 profile and enable end users to confidently deploy these devices on open, standard networks. The goal is to have the final version of the single, shared test plan available soon after the IEC/IEEE 60802 profile is published.

“Avnu’s purpose and mission is to transform standard networks to enable support for many time-sensitive applications and protocols in an open, interoperable manner,” said Greg Schlechter, Avnu Alliance President. “This collaboration among organisations will be critically important to facilitating coexistence of multiple workloads and protocols according to IEEE 60802 on a network, while leveraging foundational network interoperability that is used across industries.

“We are committed to working with the industries to enable an interoperable ecosystem of devices that allow end users to confidently deploy on open, standard and converged networks.”

“The creation of the Connected Industries of the future requires different systems and devices to communicate in order to deliver the necessary process transparency required,” said Manabu Hamaguchi, Global Director at CLPA. “This is a core principle for the CLPA and is at the root of why the organisation was founded. It is why we are delighted to be part of the TIACC and look forward to supporting the creation of a unified, common test plan for TSN-compatible products. By doing so, we can help further boost the adoption of futureproof technologies for smart manufacturing.”

“EtherNet/IP users will be able to take advantage of the benefits afforded by 60802 TSN of enhanced network performance, higher utilisation and guaranteed network access for multiple time-critical applications with different priorities. ODVA’s participation in TIACC will ensure that the full potential of 60802 TSN coexistence is realised by end users to help make Industry 4.0 and IIoT a reality,” said Dr Al Beydoun, President and Executive Director at ODVA.

“OPC UA is a secure, vendor-independent communication solution that fully scales from the field to the cloud and offers semantic interoperability. Other underlying IT infrastructure such as Ethernet TSN and the IEC/IEEE 60802 TSN Profile for Industrial Automation open up further applications for the market,” said Stefan Hoppe, President and Executive Director of the OPC Foundation. “We believe this conformance collaboration is an important contribution to preparing and delivering streamlined and effective conformance testing and certification to the industry in collaboration with other SDOs.”

“At PI we are taking conformance testing very seriously. It’s our belief, that thought-out testing ensures cross-vendor interoperability, and that’s why we invested huge efforts in our test system in recent years,” said Karsten Schneider, Chairperson of PROFIBUS and PROFINET International (PI). “With this joint initiative we are taking the next step towards converged networks utilising TSN, giving our users the confidence in the future-readiness of PROFINET. This collaboration is a huge milestone on the way of the digital transformation.”

More information about the TSN Industrial Automation Conformance Collaboration (TIACC) is available at https://www.tiacc.net/.

Image: LAPP.