Abstract
If you thought the arguments over plant floor communications were resolved by the ratification of an international fieldbus standard back in 2000, think again. The emergence of industrial Ethernet as the future physical and transport medium of choice puts the whole issue back in the melting pot. Today there is widespread recognition of Profibus as the clear leader for factory automation applications in Europe, but less widely appreciated is the fact that Interbus runs a surprisingly close second, that DeviceNet rides the manufacturing roost in North America, that Modbus, without the benefit of inclusion in either or any IEC standard, is still the protocol of choice for a large proportion of industrial automation applications or that, in Asia, CC-Link, hardly mentioned in Europe or North America, leads the field, again without benefit of an IEC accolade. Move the spotlight to the process automation sector and, if anything, the picture becomes even more confused. True, there are only two serious contenders: Profibus and Foundation Fieldbus (FF), but they can't even agree between themselves what actually constitutes a process application.
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