PROFINET – Process Field Network

As a PROFIBUS extension, the Ethernet-based PROFINET fieldbus is manu­facturer-inde­pendent and an open standard of the PROFIBUS & PROFINET International Organ­ization (PI). PROFINET is real-time capable, IoT-ready and TSN-compatible thanks to the support of the IEEE 802-standard. In the auto­mation area, it is responsible for fast data com­mu­ni­cation with high data rates in all manu­fact­uring-, process automation- and drive technology solutions.

Due to the modularity of the network, the user can choose the mode of operation himself. The advantage of the fieldbus is its flexibility through scalable real-time. In addition to real-time com­mu­ni­cation, non-real-time capable stan­dard devices can also be integrated in the system without affecting the real-time transfer of process data. Compar­able to PROFIBUS, in which only the line topology is used, PROFINET supports any physical topology (ring, line, star, tree), thus additionally emphasizing its flexibility.