In what amounts to a bottom-up approach to data integration, Rockwell Automation and Cisco today announced a network reference architecture that will help manufacturers create a common communications backbone spanning the plant and enterprise.
The duo, which have had an ongoing partnership, are taking the work they've done in their respective labs — configuring Rockwell controllers and drives to work on standard Ethernet topologies using Cisco Industrial Ethernet switches — and making the information available to customers.
The companies announced the joint initiative today at Hannover Fair in Germany. They are in the midst of creating a series of white papers and design and implementation guides to ease the setup of both wired and wireless Ethernet networks, officials said.
The work of the partnership centers on the physical communications network that exists in any company. On the factory floor, EtherNet/IP deals with issues of determinism and safety. On the enterprise side, Ethernet TCP/IP is geared toward security and manageability. To create an open flow of information between those worlds, the hardware and software must work in tandem, something Rockwell and Cisco are intent on facilitating.
"We are just helping to ensure that people configure everything in the right way to deal with the nuances of the factory automation world," Joe Kann, vice president of global business development for Rockwell Automation, told Managing Automation. "Think of the documents as a cookbook of how to get this done."
The idea for a reference architecture came from the companies' Customer Innovation Council, a group of about a dozen joint customers who collectively told Rockwell and Cisco that they wanted to understand how to make the current technologies work together.
Indeed, though there is much talk about sharing data between the plant and the enterprise using Web services and middleware technology, little has been said about the physical infrastructure. "In some ways, it's almost like the story we forgot," Kann said. "We are spending so much time worrying about issues of MES-to-enterprise and SOA that, in some ways, we've left behind the fundamental infrastructure required to make that stuff happen."
According to Kann, some IT professionals on the customer council expressed concern that the proliferation of IP addresses on the shop floor would mean having to manage hundreds of controllers and thousands of I/Os, which could quickly turn into an explosion of devices.
"While higher-level messaging is important, if the infrastructure lets you down and collapses underneath you, it creates a bigger problem than people have anticipated," Kann said.
The concept of a collaborative communications architecture stems from ODVA (Open DeviceNet Vendor Association), an international association working to build open networks based on the Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) and EtherNet/IP. Rockwell and Cisco are leading members of ODVA. Earlier this month, Schneider Electric joined ODVA as one of its principal members, which also include Omron Corp. and Eaton Electrical.
The fact that major automation vendors are embracing the same network protocol is good news for end users, as it aids in efforts to create a common approach to building out a network topology. In addition, the new reference architecture outlined by Rockwell and Cisco will help move commercial- and industrial-grade products closer together, officials said.
The information will continually be updated as the two companies test and validate various Cisco and Rockwell equipment in both wired and wireless Ethernet environments. "This is really a march as opposed to a final document," said Mark Wylie, Cisco's technology partner manager.
The end goal is network transparency. "Independent of how a company chooses to set up the system, they will know that if they architect it a certain way, they will have predictable results," Wylie said in an interview with Managing Automation.
The design guide documentation will be available at the end of this month on both companies' Web sites, with periodic updates throughout the summer and fall, officials said. The reference information will be free, although if a customer needs application assistance from Rockwell or Cisco engineers, the typical service charge will apply.