Universal Adapters for Remote Monitoring€¦ · Remote monitoring applications require adapters to be built for each type of communication protocol to monitor input. It becomes difficult

Universal Adapters for Remote Monitoring

M a y 2 0 1 3

Universal Adapters for Remote Monitoring | May 2013

© 2013, HCL Technologies, Ltd. Reproduction prohibited. This document is protected under copyright by the author. All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ............................................................................................. 3

Abbreviations .................................................................................... 4

Market Trends/Challenges ................................................................ 5

FDT ................................................................................................... 6

Realistic Scenario ............................................................................. 7

Wireless Devices? ............................................................................. 7

Integrating Fieldbus ROM and FDT .................................................. 8

Use Cases of Single Platform ........................................................... 9

For Drives OEM ............................................................................. 9 For Process Control OEM ............................................................. 9

Conclusion....................................................................................... 10

References ...................................................................................... 11

Author Info ....................................................................................... 11



Abstract

Field devices like transmitters, valves or drives use smart

communication protocols such as Fieldbus and Profibus to

communicate with control systems/servers. End users like refineries

usually end up buying devices with different communication

protocols, as a single vendor or a single protocol is not able to

satisfy all their requirements. Adding to this are wireless devices.

This leads to a situation requiring end users to have technical

expertise in each of devices, interpreting their diagnostics and

maintaining the devices. A common platform covering the most

commonly used wired and wireless devices would be of immense

help to operators and technicians.

Field Device Tool (FDT) and Fieldbus Remote Operation

Management (Fieldbus ROM), when used together, can fill that gap

and can read data from most current field devices. This paper

describes a universal gateway using FDT and Fieldbus ROM.

Note: This paper is not intended to describe FDT or Fieldbus ROM

technology, but how these can be leveraged for a realistic situation.

Field Device Tool (FDT) and

Fieldbus Remote Operation

Management (Fieldbus ROM),

when used together, can read

data from most field devices.



4

Abbreviations

Sl. No. Acronym Full Form

1 DTM Device Type Manager

2 EDDL Electronic Device Description Language

3 H1 Fieldbus H1 is a protocol connecting end

devices on a Fieldbus network executing

at 10 Mbps

4 HSE Fieldbus high-speed ethernet is a

Fieldbus network connecting all devices to

a control system running at 100Mbps

5 HART Highway addressable remote transducer –

a digital protocol used to transmit process

parameters by transmitters

6 ISA International Society of Automation;

ISA100.11a is a wireless protocol

7 ROM Remote Operations Management

8 OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer



5

Market Trends/Challenges

Remote monitoring of process operations is increasingly becoming

accepted as a means of improving equipment life, moreso when

equipment is capital intensive and in remote locations with not many

available skilled resources. The equipment is monitored by

collecting the real time data from sensors or transmitters. Today

there are transmitters sending data on a variety of communication

protocols – wired or wireless. Even among wired protocols, there

are many protocols like Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus, HART, etc.,

and in wireless there is Wireless HART, and ISA100.11a. Wi-Fi.

Remote monitoring applications require adapters to be built for each

type of communication protocol to monitor input. It becomes difficult

to maintain the different adapters and indirectly the equipment.

Engineers need to be skilled in using the configuration tools of each

of the adapters to communicate with transmitters. End users want a

single platform to monitor, run diagnostics and do maintenance on

all their field devices.

A universal gateway that can read data from a variety of transmitters

(in terms of communication protocols), be it wired or wireless, would

be an ideal solution for easy adaptation of remote monitoring. FDT

(Field Device Tool) and Fieldbus ROM (Remote Operation

Management) are two technologies that together can be leveraged

to provide a standard platform for remote monitoring applications.

Both these technologies are intended to embrace the different

communication protocols under one umbrella, and to provide a

common look and feel, independent of the communication protocol

used. Though FDT covers most wired protocols, Fieldbus ROM

provides a common platform for wireless protocols – wireless HART

and ISA100.11a devices. Fieldbus H1 devices can also talk to

Fieldbus ROM.

The following section briefly describes each of these technologies, and the section after describes how they can be integrated.

End users want a single

platform to monitor, run

diagnostics and do

maintenance on all their field

devices



6

FDT

FDT, or Field Device Tool, provides a standard, unified interface to communicate to different (read as different types of protocols) field devices – process transmitters, drives and valves. On user level, a user interface called “Frame Application” displays the transmitter status, its value, provision to run diagnostics, read alarms and logs. A single FDT frame application supports HART, PROFIBUS, FOUNDATION Fieldbus, DeviceNet, Interbus, AS-Interface, and PROFINET IO devices. The Frame Application interfaces with a module called Device Type Manager (DTM). The DTM provides a unified structure for accessing device parameters, configuring and operating the devices, and diagnosing problems. A DTM is uploaded onto a PC and provided by the OEM, i.e. there would be one DTM for each type of transmitter. Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) “A” would give a DTM for its Fieldbus transmitters and a DTM for its HART transmitter. Another OEM “B” would give a different DTM for their Fieldbus pressure transmitter. However, a single DTM from an OEM would suffice for their family of transmitters on the same protocol. For example, Fieldbus H1 pressure, temperature and level transmitter from an OEM can work with the same DTM. The concept of Frame Application, DTM and devices are akin to a Print Manager UI in Windows interfacing with the respective printer driver, as shown in the diagram below.

Frame Application

DTM

Print Manager on Windows

Printer Driver

Personal Computer

Though the diagram above is very much simplified, the DTM consists of two parts – the device DTM and the communication DTM (in short called Comm. DTM). The device DTMs are provided by the OEM. They have the functions to perform diagnostics, retrieve process parameters and send commands to field devices. They expose these functions to the Frame Application as API.

FDT has three main

components – a frame

application, a device DTM and

a communication DTM.



7

The communcation DTM provides the communication channel for the Frame Application to talk to the field equipment DTM, though physically the devices would be daisy-chained or follow a network topology and be connected to a router, switch or gateway, and the Comm. DTM would control the networking. Both device and comm. DTM reside in the PC. A gateway DTM is another category of DTM that is used to bridge two different protocols. For example, Fieldbus H1 devices can send their output on Fieldbus HSE using a Fieldbus Gateway DTM.

Realistic Scenario

In a process plant, there could hundreds of field transmitters, valves and drives that need to be monitored, with different protocols used to transmit data. So how could FDT be used?

Foundation Fieldbus Devices From different vendors HART Devices From different vendors

FieldBus Communication DTM HART Communication DTM

Ethernet Switch

Device DTM Device DTM Device DTMDevice DTM Device DTM Device DTM

Assuming there are valves, a transmitter and drives with Foundation Fieldbus and HART protocol to be monitored, the connection would be as shown in the diagram above. Foundation Fieldbus devices connect to a Fieldbus comm. DTM that in turn connects to Frame Application. HART devices would be connected in a similar way using device DTM for HART communication.

Wireless Devices?

Currently, FDT does not cover wireless protocols or wireless devices don’t come with device DTM that can be interfaced with Frame Application. So, in a plant that has wired and wireless devices, a single platform to maintain and configure the devices would be very useful. That is where Fieldbus Remote operation Management (ROM) comes into play. Fieldbus ROM, like FDT, is a

Fieldbus ROM like FDT is

single platform to connect

Wireless HART and

ISA100.11a type of Wireless

Transmitters



8

single platform to connect wireless HART and ISA100.11a types of wireless transmitters. Wireless HART and ISA100.11a are two widely used protocols for wireless data transmission in the process industry. Wired Fieldbus H1 devices can also be connected to the same platform. The unified Fieldbus ROM platform that can accept wireless input uses Fieldbus HSE as the output device to connect to a computer as shown in the diagram below. Fieldbus ROM offered wireless HSE and wired HSE as output (Fieldbus ROM terminology is Fieldbus HSE backhaul). Wireless devices have an interface similar to DTM called Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) to integrate their devices with Fieldbus ROM. Though there are currently moves to integrate EDDL and DTM, it is yet to happen.

Foundation ROM device

Wireless HART DevicesISA100.11a Devices

FieldBus HSE

Integrating Fieldbus ROM and FDT

A gateway that integrates Fieldbus ROM with FDT would be an ideal combination for any equipment monitoring or process plant monitoring. Such a gateway can provide a single platform for most wired and wireless devices. FDT would be the overall controlling framework, and Fieldbus ROM would be a subset, as shown in the diagram below. The Frame Application looks at the Fieldbus ROM platform as Fieldbus Gateway DTM.

A gateway that integrates

Fieldbus ROM with FDT would

be an ideal combination for

any equipment monitoring or

process plant monitoring



9

Foundation Fieldbus Devices From different vendors

HART Devices From different vendors

FieldBus Communication DTMHART Communication

DTM

Ethernet Switch

Fieldbus ROM

FieldBus Gateway DTM

In such a network connection, all wired and wireless devices are covered. The frame application can get data from such devices.

Use Cases of Single Platform

For Drives OEM

DeviceNet, ControlNet, ProfiNet, Sercos and EtherCAT protocols are some of the most commonly used communication protocols for drive operations, and all of them have FDT interfaces. A single drive OEM may not be able to satisfy all electrical drive requirements for a chemical plant or for an iron ore mining company, so end users end up buying drives from different OEMs, and with that comes different communication protocols. A few would use SERCOS, others would use Profibus, and so on. An energy management application specifically for drives requiring input from all drives and modifying the speed is possible using FDT/DTM.

For Process Control OEM

FDT/DTM is an obvious choice for control system vendors, as they need to interface with transmitters and control valves from different OEMs.

An energy management

application specifically for

drives requiring input from all

drives and modifying the speed

is possible using FDT/DTM



10

Conclusion

FDT and Fieldbus ROM can complement each other and provide a

universal adapter for wired and wireless devices. Such an adapter

would be ideally suited for remote monitoring, data retrieval,

executing diagnostics, etc. Though FDT is mature technology, with

more than 1,300 devices and Comm. DTMs, Fieldbus ROM is

relatively new. But that should not prevent users from embracing the

technology, as it is supported by the Fieldbus Foundation and it

uses time-tested EDDL concepts in connecting to field devices.

FDT is mature technology, with

more than 1,300 devices and

Comm. DTMs



11

References

1. http://www.fdtgroup.org/

2. http://www.fieldbus.org/images/stories/enduserresources/te

chnicalreferences/documents/foundation_for_remote_opera

tions_management.pdf

Author Info

Mahesh Subrmaniam is with the ERS Industrial

Practice of HCL Technologies, Ltd. He has

more than 20 years of experience in Industrial

Automation and IT services. His current areas of

interest are condition monitoring and automation

solutions for the process industry.

http://www.fdtgroup.org/

http://www.fieldbus.org/images/stories/enduserresources/technicalreferences/documents/foundation_for_remote_operations_management.pdf



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Universal Adapters for Remote Monitoring€¦ · Remote monitoring applications require adapters to be built for each type of communication protocol to monitor input. It becomes difficult