Today’s automation devices use a wide variety of different fieldbus systems and real-time Ethernet protocols to communicate on the control and field level. Although most of these fieldbus systems and real-time Ethernet protocols are standardised by IEC (61158/61784 series), many devices are not interoperable with each other. Many of these protocols support different network infrastructures. However, even if they support the same infrastructure, they cannot coexist in the same network. Also, device information is structured using different syntax and semantics, making data analysis a labour-intensive and time-consuming task vulnerable to error, especially in multi-vendor and multi-protocol environments.

The trend towards Industry 4.0 and IIoT requires concepts for vendor-independent end-to-end interoperability from sensor to cloud, including field-level devices for all relevant industrial automation use cases, including real-time, motion, security, and safety. A standardised communication protocol from sensor to cloud supports the digital transformation across all industries, including process control and discrete manufacturing. End-users and system integrators benefit from easier Controller integration and cross-vendor Controller-to-Controller interoperability. Seamless access to production data and process conditions facilitates less downtime and optimisation of production processes.

This approach requires standardisation on different levels, including semantics and information modelling, application profiles, communication protocols, and data link/physical level connections. An important aspect is the convergence of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), allowing a common network infrastructure to be shared by IT and OT traffic while guaranteeing different levels of Quality of Service demanded by diverse IT and OT applications.