A Development of PC/Ethernet based Fieldbus Network for Large Realtime Data Communication

Control network adopted in the national power-plant or manufactory are mostly vendor-dependent products, which have their own special specification, components and individual communication methods. These systems not only raise installation cost, but also bring many difficulties to maintenance and extension. To overcome these problems, this paper introduces a development and application case of a new "PC/Ethernet-based fieldbus" architecture and protocol to be used in mid-level fieldbus. The designed system has a basic idea of "3 Layers fieldbus over Standard-LAN" and implemented on PCs. PC gives user friendly environment. By using an open standard Ethernet in layer 1,2, the system has low cost, wide communication bandwidth and high compatibility. Layer 3 protocol designed for large realtime data communication makes user bypass TCP/IP layer and gives user direct access to the Ethernet. This new protocol eliminates potential collision of Ethernet, and transmits large periodic/non-periodic control data by using long-frame/wide-bandwidth of Ethernet effectively, and offers simple API-Services to the upper layer. Since the system have installed in H-power plant simulator and U-nuclear power plant simulator in Korea, it have been proved to be efficient and stable without any trouble in realtime communication service for full-scope plant simulator that has a lot of control elements.