PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) Virtualized Controller and Device Certification

With the technical advancements being made in virtualization technology and the growing demand for virtual controllers and devices, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International (PI) has adapted the PROFINET certification process accordingly and released the PROFINET Test Bundle V2.45.0 in August 2024. Virtual controller and device instances can be officially tested and certified effective immediately. PROFIsafe can also be used in a virtual context as already confirmed by TÜV Süd with a letter of conformance.

Virtualized PROFINET devices run on standard hardware in virtualized environments, which enables easy scaling and adaptation to different requirements. This reduces the need for special hardware and decreases overall costs. Virtual controllers use TCP/IP and IT standards to ensure stable and efficient communication between devices on a network. Through corresponding resource management, multiple controller and device instances can be operated at the same time on a single piece of hardware. Virtualized PROFINET devices offer numerous advantages in areas such as flexibility, scalability, high performance, and easy integration, but can also present challenges with regard to guaranteeing the expected quality and reliability of PROFINET devices.

According to PI, important considerations include:

• Runtime and communication behavior can be significantly influenced by the virtual environment and transport network.

• The transport network considerably affects the jitter of PROFINET communication.

• Virtualization and the transport network are not fully under the control of the virtual instance provider.

To ensure the expected high level of quality in the form of interoperability and availability despite this variance, the certification approach for virtual PROFINET instances was divided into two steps—in the first step, the PROFINET test laboratory conducts a test based on a simple example configuration of the virtual PROFINET instance. The optionally implemented and obligatory functions are tested based on the corresponding conformance class here. Following successful completion, a certificate listing the reference hardware used at the test laboratory, the virtualization technology, and the guaranteed resources can be applied for.

In the second step, implementation of the specific instance is tested on the actual physical system. For this purpose, a tool is being developed which must be used on site by the customer to test the performance of the transport network and the requirements regarding the time behavior (latency and jitter, among other things) and the network load.

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