Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Andreas Zirkler

Johannes Riedl

Michael Armbruster

Thomas Schmid

Ludger Fiege

Hans-Peter Huth

Joachim Feld

Vivek Kulkarni

Joachim Lohmeyer

Florian Zeiger

Matthias Scheffel

Reinhard Frank

Amine Mohamed Houyou

Ermin Sakic

Marco Dilger

Various embodiments of the teachings herein include a method for configuring an industrial communication network. The method may include: deploying an application to a digital twin set up to represent an industrial communication system, devices connected to the network, processes, and physical interactions; running the application on the digital twin; collecting data of the application's communication traffic; classifying the application's end points and communication characteristics based on the collected communication traffic; changing the communication characteristics of the communication links until reaching limits of performance quality; deriving network parameters required by the application; and configuring the industrial communication network based on the determined network parameters.

Automated application service detection for configuring industrial communication networks

The claimed interface extension device is based on a network device (DCC) having at least one previously unoccupied digital data output (OUT), to which an interface extension module (IOE) having at least one supply voltage input (S) and having a plurality of digital interfaces is coupled in the claimed manner. In this way, the supply voltage input (S) of the interface extension module (IOE) is interconnected with the digital data output (OUT) of the network device (DCC), so that in event of an error, the interface extension module (IOE) and all the digital interfaces thereof can be switched off. In addition, by measuring the sum current flowing through the outputs of the interface extension module, the load diagnosis capacity of the network configuration can be extended to the interface extension device. The claimed interconnection of the supply voltage input (S) of the interface extension module with the digital data output (OUT) of the network configuration has the advantage of also implementing a fail-safe behavior for conventional interface extension modules.

Interface expansion device for a network device

A network mechanism for a communication network, e.g., Ethernet environment, includes a first control mechanism with an assigned first physical port and a second control mechanism with an assigned second physical port, the first and the second physical port being configured to receive and send data via a transmission medium. The network mechanism is configured such that transmitted data from the first control mechanism are coupled by an internal transmit connector of the first control mechanism via the first physical port into the transmission medium and received data at the second physical port are routed to an internal receive connector of the first control mechanism. Alternatively, received data can be routed crosswise to the other control mechanism, i.e., the control mechanism not assigned to the receiving physical port. The crosswise routing enables the formation of two independent ring-shaped communication paths of different transmit/receive directions within a single physical ring-shaped network.

Network mechanism, network arrangement and method for operating a network arrangement

A control unit and method for operating an industrial automation system communication network that includes a plurality of communication devices, wherein a plurality of control units redundant with respect to each other controls functions of a plurality of associated communication devices, where the communication devices transmit communication-specific input variables to all associated redundant control units, output variables (produced by the control units redundant with respect to each other are checked for deviations from each other, and where if there are deviations, then a switchover is made to reserve control units or control units having output variables that deviate with respect to a majority of control units redundant to each other are deactivated.

Control unit and method for operating an industrial automation system communication network comprising a plurality of communication devices

Method for operating an industrial automation system communication network that includes a plurality of communication devices, and control unit, wherein at least one control unit controls functions of a plurality of assigned communication devices and is assigned to at least one partition of the communication network in order to operate an industrial automation system communication network comprising a plurality of communication devices, where partitions each include predefinable parts of communication devices assigned to system resources for predefinable resource periods of use, access periods and repetition cycles for transmit queues are set by the control unit according to the resource periods of use for the partitions in the assigned communication devices, where possible partitions are determined for the path reservation requests based on matching classifications of access periods and repetition cycles, and where the particular path reservation request is assigned to a determined partition when sufficient system resources exist.

The invention relates to network nodes comprising: a first computing unit (CPU); at least one second computing unit (CPU); an internal switch (Sw); and an external switch (Sw), wherein the internal switch (Sw) is connected to the first computing Nunit (CPU), the at least second computing unit (CPU) and to the external switch (Sw) and wherein the external switch (Sw) has at least one port for data originating from other network nodes. The invention also relates to a control module and an Ethernet ring.

Network node, control module for a component and ethernet ring

A method for operating a network arrangement having a plurality of network systems is disclosed. Data belonging to a first class is synchronously transmitted in a specified time slot identical for all network systems. A network system, which owing to a synchronization error during the specified time slot, receives data belonging to other classes from a plurality of senders, then only sends data belonging to the first class, but now in standard messages belonging to class 2. Non-vital data belonging to the other classes is no longer transmitted in this operating state. Improved failure safety and in particular a fail-operational mode is provided by the behavior of the network systems in the event of synchronization errors. A network system which implements the method and a network arrangement having a plurality of corresponding network systems is also proposed.

Method for operating a network arrangement, network system and network arrangement

The invention relates to a method for operating a communication network (), in particular an Ethernet network. Network devices () which are coupled to the network comprise a switch device (), a first and a second control device () which are coupled to the switch device (), and the switch device () comprises for the first and the second control device () a respective input port () and emitter port () for sending and receiving data via the communication network (). Ring-shaped communication paths for data are provided so that redundant data can be transmitted in different directions and checked for consistency. An improved protection against failure and error analysis in the event of transmission errors are ensured by the ring-shaped structure using bidirectional communication paths. The invention further relates to a network arrangement () comprising several corresponding network devices () which operate according to the method.

Method for operating a communication network, and network arrangement

Methods and apparatuses for increasing quality of service in a network having nodes if there is a faulty node which can result in data traffic being overloaded in at least one part of the network are provided. The disclosed embodiments of the invention can be used in the field of safety-critical applications, such as medial applications, monitoring devices, and in-vehicle communication systems.

Detection of a faulty node in a network

A method for operating a communications network, in particular an Ethernet network is provided. Network devices that are coupled to the network have a switch device and a control device that is coupled to the switch device, and the switch device has at least one receiving port and a sending port for sending and receiving data via the communications network. Fuse devices for monitoring a particular data transfer rate are assigned to the receiving ports. The fuse devices block data reception at a particular receiving port when a previously determined maximum data transfer rate is exceeded. A possible annular structure using bidirectional communication paths and the limitation of the data transfer rate at the receiving ports improve fail-safety and error analysis in the event of transfer and hardware errors, in particular babbling idiot errors. The invention further relates to a network arrangement having a plurality of corresponding network devices which function according to said method.

Method for operating a communications network and network arrangement

A method is provided for selecting a plurality of program functions for providing repeatedly implemented functions, e.g., in a vehicle, ship or in an aircraft. The method includes determining a first total performance value based on recorded first single performance values and recorded first dependencies, determining a first total performance value based on determined second single performance values and recorded second dependencies, determining a cluster performance from the first total performance value and from the second total performance value, and the cluster performance value or at least one value determined from the cluster performance value is used for selecting the program functions or of other program functions for providing the repeatedly implemented functions.

Method for selecting multiple program functions, method for selecting one program function, associated apparatuses and associated vehicle, ship or aircraft

In order to reduce data traffic in a network, a master node sends master data to at least one checking instance. The master data are checked by the checking instance. In the absence of errors, either the master data or slave data determined by the slave node are sent by the checking instance to the data-processing unit. When an error is recognized, all master data and slave data available at the checking instance are sent by the checking instance to the data-processing unit.

Semantic deduplication

A method for configuring at least one device in an Ethernet-based communication network comprising a plurality of devices with Ethernet capability, wherein the topological position of a respective device to be configured, which is associated with a device type, in the communication network is ascertained, the respective device is sent configuration data, which correspond to its device type and to its ascertained topological position, from a database which contains a plurality of configuration data for at least one device type and a plurality of topological positions of the at least one device type, and the respective device is then configured based on the transmitted configuration data.

Method for configuring one or more devices in an ethernet-based communication network

A communications network with a plurality of network devices is provided. The communications network has a plurality N of virtual networks, which are implemented in the communications network in such a manner that each of the network devices is coupled to the communications network via at least two virtual networks. The communications network also has a plurality of network segments. A subset of the network devices is assigned to each of the network segments, wherein each network device arranged at a peripheral region of a network segment has N limiting units, each of the N limiting units being assigned to a respective one of the N virtual networks and designed to limit a data reception of the respective virtual network to a threshold for the data transmission rate predetermined for the respective virtual network.

Communication network and method for operating a communication network

A method for operating a communication network, in particular an ethernet network is provided. Each network device coupled to the network has a first control device, a first switch device which is assigned to the first control device, a second control device, and a second switch device which is assigned to the second control device. Each switch device has a transmitting and receiving port for transmitting and receiving data via the communication network, a first internal transmitting and receiving port for transmitting and receiving data between the switch devices, and a second internal transmitting and receiving port for transmitting and receiving data to or from the control device. A respective data exchange at the first and second internal transmitting and receiving port is prioritized over a data exchange at the transmitting and receiving port for transmitting and receiving data via the communication network.

Growing community of inventors

Munich, Germany

Andreas Zirkler