Fieldbus based isochronous automation application

Fieldbus based automation solutions are widely accepted in industrial applications. In the last twenty years the number of Profibus nodes is growing every year with more than 5 millions nodes. The success of this technology is also based on a continuous development and adoption of new mechanism to increase the functionally of the fieldbus technology. One of the adopted features is the possibility to create isochronous automation systems. This paper shows how isochronous automation applications are implemented with Profibus and the performances which can be achieved. An outlook is given to the new Ethernet based fieldbus Profinet and the possibilities to reach the same performances as with the fieldbus.