In addition to the above I&M data which are only bound to the PROFINET address elements slot/subslot, additional end customer requirements for enhanced asset management capabilities are incorporated in the PROFINET specification. Definition of PROFINET asset management objects sometimes use data types already defined by I&M properties. In addition to them other asset management properties are available. Asset information can be bound to slots and subslots to extend information, which cannot be modelled with I&M properties. Moreover, the PROFINET specification defines a level-tree of assets which objects are independent from the slot/subslot addressing scheme.
The following picture shows a possible example of asset management usage in a modular IO device.
Figure 11 – Asset management example modular IO
The green elements are the modules and submodules of the station carrying I&M information. Additional asset information like version info of the power supply, terminal blocks or connected sensors and actors can be described by means of asset management objects, which are not directly related to the slot/subslot model.
In addition to this example PROFINET AM can be used to manage all components with loadable software, which can be device or module firmware as well as application programs running on PLCs or robots.
The following asset management objects can be accessed via a defined acyclic read service.
- AM_Info:The scope of the asset information, which can be “full information”, “firmware only” or “hardware only”.
- AM_Location:The location of an asset within a device as 16 subsequent octets. The location can be either “slot/subslot” to extend I&M information or “level tree” to form hierarchical structures of assets.
- IM_UniqueIdentifier:A 128-bit globally unique identification of the asset created by the manufacturer e.g. by means of ISO/IEC 9834-8:2014.
- IM_Annotation:A manufacturer-specific identifier of the asset such as the asset’s name as Unicode string8 with the length of 64 octets.
- IM_OrderID:The order ID of the asset as UnicodeString8 with the length of 64 octets.
- AM_SoftwareRevision:The edition of the software of the asset as UnicodeString8 with 64 octets.
- IM_Software_Revision:Software revision in a special I&M coding of VisibleString[9].
- AM_HardwareRevision:The edition of the hardware of the asset as UnicodeString8 with 64 octets.
- IM_Hardware_RevisionThe hardware revision in I&M coding.
- IM_Serial_Number:A unique production number of the asset set by the manufacturer as VisibleString16.
- AM_DeviceIdentification:The unique device identification in the address space of an organization like VendorID & DeviceID for PI. Or OUI for IO-Link.
- AM_TypeIdentification:Used to identify the family of the asset and assigned by the manufacturer like “IO controller”, “IO device”, “IO-Module”. Standard and manufacturer specific values are defined in [3].