PROFINET
Proven. Performant. PROFINET – real-time communication in the field.
The increasing digitalization of companies, involving networking between OT and IT, is opening up tremendous economic potential. PROFINET – the leading Industrial Ethernet standard for automation – supports you at the field level in creating integrated processes with real-time communication and connecting them up to the cloud via OPC UA. The openness and flexibility of PROFINET means you enjoy maximum freedom when designing your machine and system structure. Its unrivaled efficiency allows you to use available resources optimally, while significantly increasing plant availability. PROFINET’s performance sustainably increases the productivity in your company. And if you’re wondering what the next step is for digitalization – straight talk TSN.
Consistent openness today and tomorrow
PROFINET embodies the idea of enabling manufacturer-neutral automation solutions with an open standard. PROFINET is 100 percent Industrial Ethernet – the standard that has been established in industrial communications since the 1990s. This creates the basis for a uniform automation network to which automation devices and standard Ethernet devices can be connected.
- Manufacturer neutrality – connectivity and interoperability with components from various manufacturers
- Investment protection – because you can continue using existing PROFINET projects and programs when you use TSN in future, and existing PROFIBUS installations can still be integrated
- Commissioning, diagnostics, and remote maintenance using standard web technologies – because PROFINET is 100 percent Ethernet and supports TCP/IP
- Assured ongoing development – PROFINET harmonizes perfectly with cutting-edge standards such as OPC UA, thanks to IEC/IEEE conformity
Maximum flexibility for implementing your ideas
In view of the increasingly shorter innovation and product lifecycles in all sectors, fast response times and optimized processes are crucial to ensuring long-term competitiveness. With its maximum flexibility in plant structures and production processes, PROFINET enables the implementation of innovative machine and plant concepts. You can integrate mobile devices, for example, in relatively inaccessible locations.
- Wireless communication – via Industrial Wireless LAN (IWLAN) for automatic guided vehicles (AGV) and mobile panels, for example
- Safety-related communication – thanks to PROFIsafe, there’s no need for special network components, and wireless configuration is possible only with IWLAN components from Siemens
- Flexible topologies – with linear, star, tree, and ring topologies, allowing for later expansion and offering access to machines and plant via a secured VPN connection, for remote maintenance purposes for example
- Expandability – thanks to easy integration of existing systems or the addition of new PROFINET nodes
More efficiency for your economic advantage
Continually rising raw material prices and constantly new environmental regulations make it necessary for companies around the world to use their resources more cost-effectively and more efficiently, especially in production. The key to this is PROFINET. Simple engineering accelerates commissioning, and reliable devices boost plant availability. In addition, comprehensive diagnostic and maintenance concepts help reduce plant downtimes and maintenance costs to a minimum.
- One cable for all purposes – machine, diagnostic, and standard IT data, e.g. via OPC UA
- Fast and easy device and network diagnostics – via HTML standard websites and practical tools
- Increased energy efficiency – PROFIenergy switches off individual devices or entire production units when they aren’t required – on a coordinated and centrally controlled basis
- Easy cabling – thanks to the FastConnect cabling system with color-coding and pre-configured tools
- Fast device replacement – because the I/O controller automatically detects the new device and assigns its name
- Greater ruggedness and reliable data transmission – immunity to interference thanks to switches in field devices plus EMC immunity due to use of shielded as well as fiber-optic cables
High performance for boosting your productivity
Performance and precision determine market success. Precise motion control, high-speed controllers, and the deterministic synchronization of devices with PROFINET are therefore key factors in achieving superior production. With PROFINET and OPC UA over TSN, it will also be possible to operate several real-time-capable protocols in a single network parallel to each other.
- High-speed data exchange – thanks to short cycle times down to 31.25 μs and optimal use of bandwidth and controller performance through individual configurability of PROFINET nodes
- High precision – thanks to precise, deterministic application performance independent of other communication loads and jitter of <1 μs
- Large quantity structures – up to 1,024 devices can be managed per network. Simple configuration of hierarchical controller structures via mechanisms like I-Device
- High transmission rates – fast and efficient data throughput for large volumes of data without affecting I/O data transfer
- Redundant, high-availability installation – can be implemented both with the help of external switches and directly via integral PROFINET interfaces
- Fast start-up – detect devices and connect them with the I/O controller in < 500 ms
Two powerful standards, one common network
With PROFINET you’re best prepared for the digital transformation and the world of Industrie 4.0. Regardless of whether you intend to integrate new communication standards like OPC UA, combine IT and production networks, or take the next major step with Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) – the turbo power for PROFINET and OPC UA.Intelligent networking for the digital factory
OPC UA, the open, Ethernet-based communication standard, is the perfect enhancement to PROFINET. The way both standards work together smoothes the path to seamless communication in the world of automation and IT, and perfectly combines the advantages of both in a single industrial Ethernet network.
PROFINET scores at the field level with deterministics, a large bandwidth for increasing numbers of signals, and strict real-time capability for faster and faster applications. The strengths of OPC UA, on the other hand, lie mainly in machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and communication from machine to the MOM and ERP levels, or to the Cloud (i.e. MindSphere). Both PROFINET and OPC UA can use TSN, also an Ethernet-based technology, as a kind of “turbo power.”
TSN enables reserved bandwidths, Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms, low transmission latency, and parallel transmission of multiple protocols – including real-time-capable ones, in addition to dynamic plant changes using Plug&Work. There’s no need to go without the proven PROFINET services for configuration, parameterization, and diagnostics, or profiles from PROFIsafe, PROFIdrive, PROFIenergy, etc., since these are all still there, unchanged, in PROFINET over TSN.
Products and systems with PROFINET and OPC UA interface
Siemens consistently relies on PROFINET, the open Industrial Ethernet standard, for both the manufacturing and process industry. That’s why devices and systems communicate via PROFINET throughout Siemens’ uniquely complete automation and drive portfolio. Discover the wide range of products – right through to software solutions and tools.Even more freedom with the PROFINET profiles
With the PROFINET profiles, you can implement your customized automation solutions quickly and easily. PROFINET profiles specify additional manufacturer-independent characteristics and behaviors for devices and systems. Device-specific details as well as all details of communication are hidden. This ensures that the software engineering of equipment used in the machine or plant remains absolutely independent.PROFIdrive: Implement drive concepts quickly and easily
PROFIdrive defines the device behavior and access procedures to internal device data for electric drives on PROFINET – from simple frequency converters to high-performance servo controllers. The drive interfaces are kept as simple as possible and free of technological functions.
Your advantages:
- Uniform application interface for motion control and drive-based safety
- Replaceability of devices
- Diagnostics via bus
Reduce your engineering and commissioning time – with PROFIdrive!
PROFIsafe: Safety-related communication – open, integrated, and proven
PROFIsafe facilitates the realization of safe plants and machines on the basis of PROFINET via a communication line (wired or wireless) – without a second separate bus system. Moreover, the transmitted telegrams are permanently monitored.
Your advantages:
- Reusability of safety concepts
- Established standard of safety technology
- Minimized wiring
- Fail-safe wireless communication via IWLAN
Benefit from the easy and reliable implementation of safety applications
PROFIenergy: Communication with energy saving potential
PROFIenergy supports the easy automatic disconnection and connection of technologically correlated plant parts. Coordination is realized centrally via a higher-level control. The result: considerably reduced energy costs.
Your advantages:
- Controlled energy consumption
- Coordinated disconnection and connection of complete plant parts
- Elimination of the need for permanently wired external systems
Reduce your energy costs with PROFIenergy!
Live demonstrations of PROFINET with OPC UA and TSN
The PROFINET truck will be on the road, touring throughout Europe. Experience the benefits of PROFINET together with OPC UA and TSN up close – and discover how Industrial Ethernet standards can take your company even further forward in the age of digitalization.
Experience digitalization at first hand
How is PROFINET integrated into manufacturing and process automation systems using the TIA Portal and SIMATIC PCS 7? What would potential practical implementations of OPC UA, SIMATIC S7-1500R CPU or SIMATIC S7-1500 T-CPU and SINAMICS S210, connectivity, feeder bus systems, and flexible network infrastructure with SCALANCE, including the SINEC NMS network management system, look like? What kind of digitalization scenarios can you find in subject areas like simulation, virtualization, digital twins, and Cloud connections? In the truck vivid live demonstrations, practical examples, animations, and use cases of digitalization will clearly illustrate and explain the crucial benefits of PROFINET, OPC UA, and TSN for you. You’ll also have the chance to ask the experts any questions you may have directly. Interested? Talk to your regional PROFINET contact:
Switch from PROFIBUS to PROFINET now
Upgrading from PROFIBUS to PROFINET offers a lot of chances and opportunities. PROFINET combines the benefits of PROFIBUS and Ethernet, and is the system of the future. So give your investment the consistent protection offered by PROFINET: Migrate your existing PROFIBUS networks to PROFINET individually, step by step, and with no data loss. Then continue using your PROFIBUS networks without problems!
Security information
In order to protect plants, systems, machines and networks against cyber threats, it is necessary to implement – and continuously maintain – a holistic, state-of-the-art industrial security concept. Siemens’ products and solutions only form one element of such a concept. For more information about industrial security, please visit.
