CLPA, PI Launch CC-Link IE and Profinet Interoperability Specification

Over the past year, a working group including members from networking experts Hilscher and Molex has been drafting a specification to provide interoperability between the CC-Link IE and Profinet protocols, developed by the CC-Link Partner Association (CLPA) and Profibus & Profinet International (PI), respectively. The development was guided in part by a white paper distributed at 2015’s SPS/IPC/Drives fair, which in turn outlined the feedback of end users whose requests drove the cooperation.

Promoting transparency and ease of integration is one of the primary concerns for realizing concepts like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), according to CLPA. Many end users will source production machinery from across the world, which may result in machines in the same plant that communicate via differing protocols. This can lead to increased engineering work to achieve integration, as users are combining heterogeneous architectures that may not necessarily be able to communicate. End users of both networks flagged these challenges to both the CLPA and PI, who reacted via the new cooperation to find solutions.

“Increased openness and accessibility is what our end users demanded, so we are pleased to be able to support them fully with this new specification,” says Naomi Nakamura, global director of the CLPA.

CC-Link IE is said to enjoy predominance primarily in the Asian market, while Profinet is most prevalent in Europe; therefore, the new specification is expected to simplify integration and increase freedom of choice for end users who source production machinery globally. After less than a year of work, the specification will now be made available to members of both organizations, which will enable them to develop hardware products to support the new specification.

The specification centers on the functionality of a “coupler” device which allows transparent communication between CC-Link IE and Profinet. As a result, both networks can seamlessly share information. Both the CLPA and PI expect to see the first supported products coming to market sometime in 2017.