Report on the 5th Industrial Ethernet Congress in Stuttgart
Facts and trends about Industrial Ethernet-Solutions
Report on the 5th Industrial Ethernet Congress in Stuttgart
In autumn 2007, specialists and end-users met at the International Congress Center in Stuttgart (ICS) for the 5th Industrial Ethernet Congress (IEK). Knut Erpenbach, General Manager HAC Germany, welcomed the guests, numbering about 200, who had come to the new exhibition centre to get the latest information on trends in the field of industrial Ethernet solutions.
It was also the premiere for the location of the meeting: thanks to cooperation with Messe Stuttgart, for the first time the event could take place in the congress centre of the new exhibition centre, thus underlining the modern framework of this specialist conference – and providing more than enough space for the adjoining exhibition.
In the 23 lectures in two halls, the talk was about the basis, products, technology – and a great deal of specialist knowledge about their application. There were two noteworthy presenters: Kai Binder, chief editor of SPS magazine, and Sigurd Schobert, editor of ‘de – Der Elektro- und Gebäudetechniker’, a trade journal specialising in electrical and building services engineering.
Dr. Mokka Müller, Director of the Institut für Zukunfts-Management (Institute for Future Management) in Feldafing, opened the proceedings with her lecture ‘Complex doesn’t mean complicated’. Her lecture was all about ‘bio-logic’ with reference to networking intelligence, and this admirably suited the motto of the meeting as a whole – ‘Living networks’. The astonishing results which networked structures often produce can also be found in nature, as she said. Thus, for example, knowledge about the survival strategies of viruses can be helpful in understanding technical phenomena.
Focus – wireless
Using simple examples, Sven Sarter from Huber + Suhner was able to demonstrate how important antenna technology is in an industrial context. The fact that even safety applications can be achieved with wireless technology was amply illustrated by Ewald Kuk from Siemens A & D. Michael Vetter from Phoenix Contact explained the planning of industrial networks where the emphasis lies in wireless technology. How the reliability of industrial WLAN networks can be improved by means of meshed structures was a topic dealt with by Olaf Schilperoort from Hirschmann Automation and Control. Ulrich Lieske from PC-Soft GmbH presented the audience with an interesting application example: the production data network Lausitz. Lieske offered answers to such questions as: ‘Do office and industrial networks belong together?’, ‘How can we achieve security in such networks?’, ‘How can service firms be linked in with such networks?’
Focus – performance
Here the discussion centred on the application of cable-based industrial Ethernet solutions. Frank Iwanitz from Softing AG, for example, offered answers from users regarding the performance of the industrial Ethernet. He gave answers to such questions as whether actual equipment meets the promises made by the specification or what influence does standard IP-communication have on real-time data exchange. Alexander Klos from Baumüller made a comparison between various Ethernet technologies and gave the audience a view of which technological systems are best equipped for the future. As far as the operational aspects of industrial Ethernet solutions were concerned, this was a topic dealt with by Heiko Rössel from Röwaplan.
Disarming comedy
The evening of the first day of the congress was brought to a close by ‘Helge und das Udo’, alias Helge Thun and Udo Zepezauer from the legendary ‘Theatersport’ in Tübingen who also exercised the laughing muscles of the participants at the conference whilst dinner was being served, following the motto: a quick wit times a funny turn of phrase equals fun to the power of two.
2nd Congress Day
The second day of the conference was opened by Dr. Günter Hörcher from the company Fraunhofer-TEG. The theme ‘International Norms for High-availability Automation Networks’ took centre stage in his report. As a member of the norm regulation councils for industrial data wiring at DKE, CENELEC and ISO/IEC Hörcher was able to give us an insight into the work being carried out by these.
Henning Czerny from NetWays Network Consulting spoke on the differing physical and logical bases of office vis a vis industrial networks under the heading: ‘Two worlds grow together – at once a curse and a blessing?’
