Glossary · Industrial communication
Node address
Also known as: Station address, Device address, Node ID
German: Teilnehmeradresse
In industrial communication, a node address is the identifier that uniquely designates a device (node) on a network or bus segment, such as a PROFIBUS station address, a CANopen node ID, a Modbus slave address or an IP address.
- Industrial communication
In one sentence
A node address uniquely identifies a device on a network or bus segment, for example a PROFIBUS address or CANopen node ID.
Example
Before replacing the drive, the technician sets the rotary switches of the new unit to node address 12, the same as the old one.
How it applies
- Engineering: Address ranges and assignment rules are planned at the start of the project and recorded in the device list. Some systems use names instead (PROFINET device names), which are then resolved to addresses.
- Commissioning: Addresses are set with switches, software tools or by the master. Duplicate addresses cause intermittent faults that are hard to trace.
- Maintenance: Device replacement is the most common moment for address errors. Maintenance instructions must say how the new device gets its address.
- Documentation: The documentation team lists all node addresses in the network documentation and explains in the device manual how to set and check the address, including default values and allowed ranges. Address lists are part of Configuration control.
Node address vs. device name
In PROFINET a device is identified by its name; the IP address is assigned from it. In PROFIBUS or Modbus RTU the numeric address itself is the identity. Mixing up the concepts leads to incorrect replacement procedures.