ODVA Announcements from SPS IPC Drives in Nuremberg

ODVA, a global association whose members are comprised of global automation companies, made three announcements about Expansion of Conformance Testing Services for CIP Safety in Germany, Formation of Special Interest Group for EtherNet/IP in the Process Industries, and EtherNet/IP Includes Power Management for Equipment in Operation.

Expansion of Conformance Testing Services for CIP Safety in Germany
ODVA announced that it has authorized two Test Service Providers to conduct ODVA conformance testing services for CIP Safety in Germany. The Institute of Ergonomics, Manufacturing Systems and Automation (IAF) at the Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg has been authorized as a Test Service Provider (TSP) for CIP Safety on EtherNet/IP, and FISW Steuerungstechnik has been authorized as a TSP for CIP Safety on Sercos III. FISW joins ODVA's TSP community in 2014 effective with its appointment for CIP Safety on Sercos III. IAF has served as a TSP to ODVA since 2008.

ODVA conformance testing provides industry with vendor-independent assurance that products built to the ODVA specifications comply with those specifications and interoperate in multi-vendor installations. CIP Safety, ODVA's protocol technology for the implementation of functional safety in networked control systems, is defined in ODVA's implementation specification, The CIP Safety Specification. The CIP Safety Specification has defined three possible network implementations for the CIP Safety technology – EtherNet/IP, DeviceNet and Sercos III.

To obtain an ODVA Declaration of Conformity to The CIP Safety Specification, a product must demonstrate conformity to the relevant network specification and to The CIP Safety Specification, plus must demonstrate overall compliance with IEC 61508 as determined by a competent body in functional safety. Initially, conformance testing at FISW will be available for Sercos III slave devices and at IAF for EtherNet/IP target devices. In the future, ODVA anticipates that other testing services for CIP Safety may be added at these TSPs based on demand for CIP Safety development support in Europe.

Formation of Special Interest Group for EtherNet/IP in the Process Industries
ODVA also announced that it will form a new special interest group for EtherNet/IP in the process industries. The SIG will leverage the inherent characteristics of EtherNet/IP to develop enhancements to The EtherNet/IP Specification to address three key use cases for automation applications in the process industries: (1) field device-to-industrial control system (ICS) integration; (2) field device-to-plant asset management (PAM) integration; and (3) a holistic field-to-enterprise communication architecture.

The formation of this SIG is one outgrowth of ODVA's process initiative, which is aimed at the further optimization of process integration (OPI). The SIG's scope of work is founded on the vision to help proliferate adoption of EtherNet/IP in the process industries, and will focus initially on the integration of field devices with industrial control systems and related diagnostic services. The work of the SIG will result in a more unified communication approach to process applications, helping to enhance the ability of users to exchange information to and from the field. The work of the SIG is expected to be completed in phases generally aligned with the use cases.

ODVA will issue its call for SIG participants in December 2014 with an organizational meeting of the SIG to be held in the first quarter of 2015. Participants in the SIG are expected to include individuals from ODVA's principal members - Cisco Systems, Endress+Hauser, Rockwell Automation and Schneider Electric – in additional to other participants from ODVA's 300+ member companies. 

EtherNet/IP Includes Power Management for Equipment in Operation
ODVA also announced that the November 2014 edition of The EtherNet/IP Specification provides the framework for users to design more energy-conserving functionality into their products for when equipment is in production mode.

The update is the latest product of ODVA's Optimization of Energy Usage (OEU) initiative addressing energy as a managed resource. With this latest update, ODVA adds to its suite of technology for energy monitoring and management for end users and OEMs. ODVA's community of device vendors provides industry with a more converged approach to communication and information technologies that is more scalable and less dependent on customized and proprietary solutions.

Earlier phases of work for the OEU resulted in (1) standard tools and energy reporting methods for EtherNet/IP to help aid in energy assessment and energy monitoring, and (2) standard network services for helping command non-operational automation equipment to conservation states.

The industrial sector alone consumes about half of the world's total delivered energy, making it the largest end-use sector.

In addition to energy, EtherNet/IP supports a broad range of industrial automation solutions across control, safety, information, network management, motion and synchronization. ODVA updates its network specifications biannually to help enable end-users and OEMs to meet the expansion of industrial automation applications using the family of CIP Networks – the EtherNet/IP, DeviceNet, CompoNet and ControlNet technologies.   The latest editions of the specifications are available at the CIP Networks Library.

Keywords: Automation, Conformance Testing, CIP Safety, EtherNet/IP, Process Industries, Energy-Conserving, Production, ARC Advisory Group.