CC-Link Delivers Deterministic Traffic Management for Manufacturing Ecosystems

What you’ll learn:

• Easy network integration of new protocols with TSN.
• Simplifying device development for high network bandwidth protocols. 
• How to work with partners to seamlessly integrate TSN.

One of the greatest challenges faced by a device vendor is the support of the many industrial networks available in the market. While device vendors may be experts in their domain—vision systems, LiDAR, physical measurements, etc.—they can’t be experts in every protocol supported by automation equipment.

Hence, the need arises for a communications partner company that manages protocol support for you.  Such companies offer canned solutions for protocol support, especially leading-edge protocols such as CC-Link IE TSN—the highest performance solution for motion control.

Devices come in many levels of complexity and cost. They may be simple I/O, or more complicated such as PLCs, CNCs, or robot controls. For this reason, protocol partners need to offer a range of connectivity options, from semiconductor solutions to complete communication modules.  Communications technology may offer support for a single protocol at a time, or bundles of protocols—even end-user selected support at the time of commissioning.

When discussing protocols, we’ve typically been limited to the selection of one protocol for use in an application. Now that Ethernet has become the backbone for most protocols, that requirement has lessened, and protocols can coexist. However, there’s still a class of application—motion control—saddled with communication determinism requirements that typically preclude coexistence with other protocols.

The ability to have all Ethernet protocols coexist and be able to guarantee timing determinism was the reason behind an Ethernet standard improvement created back in 2016. That improvement delivered features for clock synchronization, traffic pre-emption, and traffic shaping to the Ethernet specification. It enabled the combination of high-priority traffic with other general-purpose traffic on one network.

Using Time-Sensitive Networking for Industrial Control

Time-sensitive networking (TSN) is the name given to the Ethernet Enhancements of 2016. With this new Ethernet specification, industrial automation protocols were able to adopt the enhanced functionality and use the features to deliver both high performance and deterministic communications capability.

Devices on a TSN-enhanced network make use of clock synchronization. They know when to send a message, and their message can be set to a higher priority than other traffic. Features also exist to shape traffic, reducing large packets by breaking them up to make sure high-priority traffic can be interspersed for delivery. New Ethernet switches are available to segment and manage TSN traffic.

The benefit to an end-user is that TSN products enable simplified machine architectures, allowing for a single communications backbone in the machine that can combine and manage all Ethernet traffic. In the past, deterministic traffic typically needed an isolated pathway for communications. But configuration remains simple, as the end-user is simply selecting and integrating products already capable of TSN communications. It’s a simple configuration task, not a development task.

For device manufacturers, though, the challenge is greater: Ethernet TSN features typically require new silicon hardware for support and that will trigger a hardware revision and not just a firmware update. Leveraging a third party for communications support can greatly ease the burden of development and certification.

Addressing Deterministic Communication Requirements

Equipment vendors that have deterministic communication requirements should consider adopting Ethernet with TSN to enable a competitive advantage over those who haven’t gone that route. Mitsubishi Electric is currently the leading vendor with Ethernet TSN support. Equipment and device vendors should consider not only Ethernet TSN, but also the leading protocol that leverages it—CC-Link IE TSN. Supporting this protocol will enable integration into the Mitsubishi Electric ecosystem of customers and OEMs, leading to new and competitive architectures based on a single communications backbone.

Ethernet with TSN is intended for “Islands of Automation” to be used in a machine or along a production line. With Ethernet TSN switches, general-purpose communications can go beyond the island for informational or supervisory communications. And these communications can certainly be IIoT-related.

The ability to support all communications traffic on a single Ethernet backbone means that all devices are accessible over Ethernet. Devices involved in deterministic communications can also support standard informational communications for use outside of control. For example, CC-Link IE TSN-based devices offer support for SNMP communications, too.

Hence, the design of equipment with new Ethernet TSN architectures will naturally lead to solutions with more data, and thus will support analytics for improved performance, quality, or troubleshooting. In the bigger picture, it supports the ideas of Industry 4.0, Smart Manufacturing, and Digital Transformation.

Communication networks like Ethernet or Ethernet with TSN will enable greater access to data. More data, combined with analytics, will lead to greater insights. Plus, our new access to AI engines will only accelerate that trend.

Implementation of CC-Link IE TSN

Mitsubishi Electric has been delivering products with CC-Link IE TSN support (designed to leverage the Ethernet TSN capabilities) since 2018. Today, Mitsubishi Electric offers a wide range of products, from the company itself as well as third parties. Companies looking to have an equipment technical advantage, especially in the area of motion control, could achieve that with Mitsubishi Electric as a partner.

CC-Link IE TSN, the CLPA’s latest open industrial Ethernet technology, combines TSN and gigabit bandwidth to support challenging Industry 4.0 applications. To assure market success, the CLPA is announcing a broad spectrum of different device development options from a range of respected industry players who are also CLPA partners.

Those companies already provide industry-leading platforms that have found wide acceptance in the market. Hence, they’re also well-equipped to offer industry-standard development options to automation vendors that wish to add CC-Link IE TSN connectivity to their products.

Currently, the lineup of partners planning to offer this support includes Hilscher, HMS, MESCO, Mitsubishi Electric, Port, Renesas, and SILA Embedded Solutions. Discussions are ongoing to add further well-known development partners to this list. The idea is to make sure that regardless of the platform vendor being used by a device maker in its products, the CLPA will be able to offer a solution that fits with their existing design methodology.

Having a wide range of partners is only part of the puzzle. An equally wide range of development options is also essential. To address this, the CLPA helps ensure that no matter what kind of design approach a device vendor has in mind, there will be a CC-Link IE TSN development solution that fits. To this end, devices can be developed using 100-Mbit or Gigabit Ethernet physical layers. This is complemented by hardware or software-stack based designs.

The final piece of the puzzle consists of being able to take these options and use them to develop master or slave devices, meaning that all possible approaches are covered.