ip4Cloud/SEC3PB Use Cases

This diagram displays the interference-free data acquisition of PROFIBUS stations and its transmission to a control system. Data points of PROFIBUS devices can be gathered and transferred by monitoring in the control direction and/or signalling direction of the bus. In this context, the use of the gateway ip4Cloud/SEC3PB has proven its worth:

With ip4Cloud/SEC3PB, data points from the PROFIBUS can be transferred to a control station (SCADA), e.g. using OPC UA, without any interference.

On the control station side, ip4Cloud/SEC3PB operates as an OPC UA 1.02, Server, while on the PROFIBUS the protocol stack Profibus-DP, Sniffer collects the desired data. The injection of data is physically prevented (interference-free). Digital and analog information is mapped into separate information and transmitted to the control center via the OPC UA 1.02, Server.

In the control center direction (OPC UA), the captured data points can be freely addressed and processed (e.g. type conversion, logical operations, collective messages). Since no quality and time stamp attributes are provided for information items in the Profibus protocol, these can be associated with ip4Cloud/SEC3PB.

The gateway can be used without changes to the projection of process components, since as a passive participant it does not need its own ID. The existing configuration of the system does not have to be modified. Consequently, by using the PROFIBUS sniffer ip4Cloud/SEC3PB, data from critical processes can be gathered, visualized and further processed without the risk of a production downtime.