Glossary · Industrial communication
Communication
Also known as: Data communication, Industrial communication
German: Kommunikation
In industrial automation, communication is the exchange of data between devices, controllers and software systems according to agreed protocols, from sensors and actuators at field level up to supervisory, MES and enterprise systems.
- Industrial communication
In one sentence
Industrial communication is the rule-based data exchange between field devices, controllers and IT systems across all automation levels.
Example
A packaging machine communicates with its drives over EtherCAT, with the line controller over PROFINET and with the MES over OPC UA.
How it applies
- Engineering: Communication design answers four questions: which data are exchanged, how often, with which timing requirements, and over which Protocol (communication) and Network. A Communication matrix records the answers.
- Integration: Interfaces between suppliers are defined by an Interface specification or Interface control document (ICD) that names protocols, data points, units and error behavior.
- Security: Every communication path is also an attack path. Segmentation, firewalls and authenticated protocols are chosen with IEC 62443 in mind.
- Documentation: The documentation team describes the communication interfaces a product offers, the data it exchanges and what happens when communication fails, so that operators and integrators can plan for it.
Protocol vs. data model
Communication needs both. The protocol defines how bytes are transported and requests are answered; the Data model or information model defines what the transported values mean. Two devices can share a protocol and still not understand each other's data.