PROFIBUS COMMUNICATIONS
PROTOCOL
PROFIBUS-DP & PROFIBUS-PA
PROFIBUS
"Profibus", or “PROcess FIeld BUS” is an industrial communication protocol and a well-
established technology used in different control applications, which has the following
features:
- Profibus connection port is just like a standard DB-9 serial connector
- Profibus network devices have a unique address, ranging from 1 to 127
- Profibus network operates at speeds of 9600 bits per second to 12 megabits per second.
Released in 1993, Profibus, or “ PROcess-FIeld-BUS,” is a tried and true industrial
communication protocol.
With over 50 million devices installed by the end of 2017, it is a well established technology
used in many different control applications.
A Profibus connection port may look very familiar to you; It looks just like a standard DB-9 serial
connector. While it may look the same, the underlying protocol is very different.
Most Profibus cable looks like what you see in the image below. It is easily recognizable by its
purple outer jacket.
Some Profibus connectors have a pass-through port on the back of the connector so that you can
daisy chain another device to the bus.
Connectors have a red switch on the back. This switch controls the Terminating Resistor. The
terminating resistor indicates the end of the Profibus network.
This switch must be set to the “on” position on the last device and “off” for every other
device.
If these switches are set incorrectly, a bus fault will occur.
Each device on a Profibus network must have a unique address, ranging from 1 to 127. This
means that up to 127 devices may reside on a single Profibus network.
Profibus networks operate at speeds of 9600 bits per second to 12 megabits per second.
While Profibus cables may be up to 1000 meters long, shorter cable lengths are required for
higher data rates.
PROFIBUS-DP & PROFIBUS-PA
PROFIBUS-DP & PROFIBUS-PA
Above you can see a factory.
Typically, in a factory, you have two key areas:
– There’s the control room which houses several industrial computers;
– And there’s the factory floor, where you’ll find a number of sensors (transmitters).
Two most common industrial computers you’ll see in a control room is called a DCS
(DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM) AND PLC (PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLER).
The DCS/PLC’s job is to control the process of manufacturing the end product in the factory.
A DCS/PLC does that by monitoring the sensors/ transmitters.
The sensors/ transmitters, which measure conditions like pressure, temperature, and levels,
can be found anywhere along the manufacturing line on the factory floor, and those sensors/
transmitters can be located quite a distance from the control room.
PROFIBUS-DP
So how would you ensure a DCS/PLC could successfully monitor all those factory sensors /
transmitters?
Well, you could use cables to connect each DCS/ PLC’s input and output directly to each sensor
/transmitters.
But here’s the hurdle in that solution: In large factories, there’s often a long distance between the
control room where the DCS/PLC is installed, and the factory floor where the sensors /transmitters
are installed.
Doing it that way, you’re going to end up with a massive number of cables running between the
control room and the factory floor.
Not only is that expensive…it’s not very efficient.
The better way is to use the Profibus-DP and here’s why…
Profibus-DP allows you to move the DCS/PLC inputs and outputs to the factory floor and
connect them to the sensors /transmitters.
You can connect the I/Os to the PLC using a single RS-485 cable.
Then use shorter cables to connect the I/Os to the sensors /transmitters …
And then use a single cable to connect the same I/Os to the PLC on the other end.
The setup is far cheaper and much more efficient.
Background on the name Profibus-DP
The DP stands for Decentralized Peripherals.
Before Profibus-DP, the I/Os, or peripherals as they are also known, were centralized in the
control room.
But by moving them to the factory floor next to the sensors, we decentralize these I/Os or the
peripherals, hence the DP designation.
So that’s why we call this type of Profibus, Profibus-DP.
PROFIBUS-PA
Sometime after the Profibus-DP was developed, a creative bunch of automation engineers had
an idea:
What if we could get rid of the cables as well and make this network even more efficient?
And that’s how Profibus-PA was invented.
PA is short for Process Automation.
Profibus-PA allows you to remove this I/O unit and also the cables and replace them with
a segment coupler and a single Profibus-PA cable.
With the new setup, instead of connecting the sensors to the I/Os one by one, you can connect all
of them to a single Profibus-PA bus.
On the other side of this bus, the segment coupler works to convert the Profibus-PA signal to the
Profibus-DP signal.
So, by utilizing Profibus-PA, you can have an even more economical and more efficient network
structure.
SEGMENT COUPLER
Now you may be asking, why do I need this segment coupler or converter here? Can’t I just
connect the Profibus-PA directly to the PLC?
Well, the short answer is no.
Why? Because the PLC doesn’t have a Profibus-PA port on it.
The good news is though, that most PLCs do have a Profibus-DP port, so by utilizing this segment
coupler or convertor, you can use Profibus-PA in the old systems as well.
By doing this, you actually end up with a Profibus-PA before the converter and a Profibus-DP
after.
So, let’s summarize how these two industrial communication protocols have changed the ease
and efficiency of setting up DCS/PLC controls.
With the invention of the Profibus-DP, we were able to advance from having the DCS/PLC in the
control room directly connected to the sensors on the factory floor; to decentralizing the I/Os
and moving them next to the sensors, and then using a simple RS-485 to connect the I/Os to the
PLC.
Then, with the help of the Profibus-PA, we made the network even more efficient by removing the
I/Os and the cables, and replacing them with a single Profibus-PA bus and a segment coupler or
a convertor. Very simple!
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