Industrial multi-protocol communication device and method based on PON (Passive Optical Network) technology

Abstract

The invention discloses an industrial multi-protocol communication device and method based on a PON technology. The industrial multi-protocol communication device based on the PON technology comprises an optical module, a PON chip module, a processor module and a field bus interface module, the processor module is used for converting a standard Ethernet signal into a field bus signal. Therefore, the processor module mainly adapts to different protocol standards through software configuration instead of needing special hardware support for each protocol, so that the industrial multi-protocol communication device based on the PON technology can meet various protocol requirements and realize access of one or more field buses, thereby replacing a plurality of communication modules, and improving the communication efficiency of the industrial multi-protocol communication device based on the PON technology. The equipment cost is effectively reduced, the utilization efficiency of equipment space is improved, and the power supply pressure is relieved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to an industrial multi-protocol communication device and method based on PON technology. Background Art

[0002] With the continuous development of products and technologies, factories are getting larger in scale, with more and more devices that are increasingly dispersed.

[0003] Currently, when transmitting information between control devices in process industries, for example, between a Distributed Control System (DCS) control cabinet and a Remote Input Output (In OUT, IO) cabinet, two methods are adopted: one is to use field buses such as Process Field Bus - Decentralized Peripherals (Profibus - DP), Modicon Bus (Modbus), Controller Area Network (CAN), etc., and the other is to use switches. The former consumes a large amount of copper wire, and at the same time, the transmission distance and transmission rate are limited; the latter can only achieve point-to-point optical fiber signal transmission. When there are many scattered devices on-site, a large number of optical fibers are required for connection, and the number of optical fiber transmission devices also increases significantly.

[0004] In response to the above two situations, CONTROL ENGINEERING CO., LTD. creatively introduced a Passive Optical Network (PON), as Figure 1 shown, using optical fiber as the transmission medium, and distributing optical signals from the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) of the DCS control cabinet to multiple user terminals, such as Optical Network Units (ONUs), through an Optical Distribution Network (ODN for short).

[0005] PON effectively solves the above problems, but also faces new problems: (1) The general ONUs on the market have differences from industrial on-site devices in terms of appearance style, product performance, and reliability, which have a great impact on actual applications; (2) In order to achieve the conversion between PON signals and on-site signals, in addition to ONUs, communication modules also need to be developed. When on-site devices need to support multiple protocols, multiple communication modules are required, which has a significant impact on the space and power supply of on-site devices. As Figure 1As shown, one field device needs to support the CAN protocol and the Profibus-DP protocol; another field device needs to support the Schneider bus transmission control protocol (Modicon Bus-Transmission Control Protocol, Modbus-TCP), the Profinet protocol, and the EthernetIP protocol; yet another field device needs to support the Schneider bus remote measurement and control terminal unit (Modicon Bus-Remote Terminal Unit, Modbus-RTU) protocol and the Profibus-DP protocol. A communication module needs to be configured for each of the above field devices respectively. Summary of the Invention

[0006] An advantage of the present application is to provide an industrial multi-protocol communication device and method based on PON technology. Among them, the industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology can meet the multi-protocol requirements of various field devices, match various field buses, and allow one or more buses to access. In this way, there is no need to configure communication modules for multiple field devices with different protocol requirements respectively, which can reduce the cost of communication equipment and the space occupied by communication modules, improve space utilization rate, and can also relieve the power supply pressure to a certain extent.

[0007] According to one aspect of the present application, there is provided an industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology, which includes: an optical module for converting an optical signal into an electrical signal; a PON chip module connected to the optical module for converting a PON signal into a standard Ethernet signal; a processor module connected to the PON chip module for converting the standard Ethernet signal into a field bus signal; and a field bus interface module connected to the processor module for providing a plurality of interface circuits.

[0008] In an embodiment of the industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology according to the present application, the processor module is configured to: receive and preliminarily analyze the standard Ethernet signal from the PON chip module to obtain an analysis data packet; and perform format adjustment and protocol conversion on the analysis data packet according to the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus to obtain a field bus signal; the processor module is further configured to: perform data reorganization during the process of performing format adjustment and protocol conversion on the analysis data packet according to the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus; during the process of performing data reorganization, perform field adjustment and perform header information adjustment on the data packet to be pre-sent to the field bus interface module according to the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus.

[0009] In an embodiment of the industrial multi - protocol communication device based on PON technology according to the present application, the processor module is further configured to: add a check code to the header information during the process of adjusting the header information of the data packet to be pre - sent to the field - bus interface module based on the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus.

[0010] In an embodiment of the industrial multi - protocol communication device based on PON technology according to the present application, the industrial multi - protocol communication device based on PON technology further includes: a data storage module and a power management module; the data storage module is connected to the PON chip module and the processor module; the power management module is connected to the PON chip module and the processor module.

[0011] According to another aspect of the present application, there is provided an industrial multi - protocol communication method based on PON technology, which includes the steps of: converting an optical signal into an electrical signal through an optical module; converting a PON signal into a standard Ethernet signal through a PON chip module; and converting the standard Ethernet signal into a field - bus signal through a processor module and sending the field - bus signal to a field - bus interface module.

[0012] In an embodiment of the industrial multi - protocol communication method based on PON technology according to the present application, during the process of converting the standard Ethernet signal into a field - bus signal, the standard Ethernet signal from the PON chip module is received and preliminarily parsed to obtain a parsed data packet; and the parsed data packet is format - adjusted and protocol - converted based on the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus to obtain a field - bus signal.

[0013] In an embodiment of the industrial multi - protocol communication method based on PON technology according to the present application, data reorganization is performed during the process of format - adjusting and protocol - converting the parsed data packet based on the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus; during the process of data reorganization, field adjustment is performed; wherein, performing field adjustment includes: identifying the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the protocol of the target field bus, and adjusting the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the protocol of the target field bus to obtain fields that meet the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus.

[0014] In an embodiment of the industrial multi - protocol communication method based on PON technology according to the present application, during the process of field adjustment, the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the protocol of the target field bus are deleted, or re - positioned, or converted into fields that meet the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus.

[0015] In an embodiment of the industrial multi - protocol communication method based on PON technology according to the present application, during the data reorganization process, the header information of the data packet to be pre - sent to the field - bus interface module is adjusted based on the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus.

[0016] In an embodiment of the industrial multi - protocol communication method based on PON technology according to the present application, during the process of adjusting the header information of the data packet to be pre - sent to the field - bus interface module based on the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus, a check code is added to the header information.

[0017] Through the understanding of the following description and the drawings, the further objectives and advantages of the present application will be fully reflected. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] By describing the embodiments of the present application in more detail in conjunction with the drawings, the above - mentioned and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present application will become more obvious. The drawings are used to provide a further understanding of the embodiments of the present application, and constitute a part of the specification. Together with the embodiments of the present application, they are used to explain the present application, and do not constitute a limitation to the present application. In the drawings, the same reference numerals generally represent the same components or steps.

[0019] Figure 1 The schematic block diagram of the communication system architecture for device - to - device communication based on passive optical network is illustrated.

[0020] Figure 2 The schematic block diagram of the communication system architecture with the industrial multi - protocol communication device based on PON technology according to the embodiment of the present application is illustrated.

[0021] Figure 3 The schematic block diagram of the structure of the industrial multi - protocol communication device based on PON technology according to the embodiment of the present application is illustrated.

[0022] Figure 4 The schematic flowchart of the industrial multi - protocol communication method based on PON technology according to the embodiment of the present application is illustrated.

[0023] Figure 5 The schematic flowchart of a step of the industrial multi - protocol communication method based on PON technology according to the embodiment of the present application is illustrated.

[0024] Figure 6 The schematic flowchart of another step of the industrial multi - protocol communication method based on PON technology according to the embodiment of the present application is illustrated. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0025] Next, exemplary embodiments according to the present application will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that the present application is not limited by the exemplary embodiments described herein.

[0026] It can be understood that the term "a" should be understood as "at least one" or "one or more". That is, in one embodiment, the number of an element can be one, while in other embodiments, the number of the element can be multiple. The term "a" cannot be understood as a limitation on the number. "Multiple" means greater than or equal to two.

[0027] Although, for example, ordinal numbers such as "first", "second", etc. will be used to describe various components, those components are not limited herein. The term is only used to distinguish one component from another. For example, the first component can be referred to as the second component, and similarly, the second component can also be referred to as the first component, without departing from the teachings of the concept of the present application. The term "and / or" used herein includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

[0028] The terms used herein are only for the purpose of describing various embodiments and are not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular form also includes the plural form unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Additionally, it will be understood that the terms "comprising" and / or "having" when used in this specification specify the presence of the described features, numbers, operations, components, elements, or combinations thereof, without excluding the presence or addition of one or more other features, numbers, operations, components, elements, or combinations thereof.

[0029] As can be seen from the above, in the process of implementing the conversion between PON signals and field signals in the existing PON communication solution, it is necessary to meet the different protocol requirements of different field devices. Therefore, communication modules are respectively configured for different field devices, which has a significant impact on the space and power supply of the field devices.

[0030] The present application proposes to use a communication device that can meet multiple protocol requirements or even all protocol requirements to replace multiple communication modules in the existing PON communication solution, so as to reduce the cost of the communication device and the space occupied by the communication modules, improve the space utilization rate, and relieve the power supply pressure.

[0031] Based on this, the present application proposes an industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology. As Figure 2 and Figure 3 shown, the industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology according to the embodiments of the present application is illustrated. The industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology is mainly used to implement the conversion between PON signals and field signals, can meet the multiple protocol requirements of field devices, match multiple field buses, and allow one or more buses to access.

[0032] Specifically, the industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology includes an optical module 10, a PON chip module 20, a processor module 30, a field bus interface module 40, a data storage module 50, and a power management module 60.

[0033] The optical module 10 is used to convert optical signals into electrical signals, and is adapted to be connected to the ODN through an optical fiber to distribute optical signals from the DCS control cabinet to multiple field devices.

[0034] The PON chip module 20 is connected to the optical module 10 and is used to convert PON signals into standard Ethernet signals. The PON chip module 20 is provided with a PON interface 201, and is connected to the optical module 10 through the PON interface 201 and communicatively connected to the optical module 10 through a PON link (PONlink), as Figure 3 shown. The PON chip module 20 can integrate an Ethernet interface 80 thereon.

[0035] The processor module 30 is connected to the PON chip module 20 and is used to convert standard Ethernet signals into field bus signals and send the field bus signals to the field bus interface module 40. Among them, the field bus signals include, but are not limited to, one or more of CAN signals, Profinet signals, Modbus-TCP signals, EthernetIP signals, Modbus-RTU signals, Profibus-DP signals, etc. The processor can integrate an Ethernet interface 80 thereon or be connected to an independent Ethernet interface 80, and is connected to the PON chip module 20 through the Ethernet interface 80.

[0036] The processor module 30 can be implemented as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or a Central Processing Unit (CPU).

[0037] The fieldbus interface module 40 is connected to the processor module 30 and is used to provide a plurality of interface circuits. More specifically, it provides an interface circuit for the fieldbus, which is suitable for being connected to the fieldbus and then connected to field devices through the fieldbus. The fieldbus interface module 40 can be integrated into the processor module 30 or independent of the processor module 30. The plurality of interface circuits include, but are not limited to, CAN interface circuits, Ethernet interface circuits, and RS485 interface circuits. Among them, the CAN interface circuit is used to transmit CAN signals; the Ethernet interface circuit is used to transmit Profinet signals, Modbus-TCP signals, and EthernetIP signals; the RS485 interface circuit is used to transmit Modbus-RTU signals and Profibus-DP signals.

[0038] The data storage module 50 is connected to the PON chip module 20 and the processor module 30 and is used to load and store data. The data storage module 50 can be implemented as a flash memory or other types of memories.

[0039] The power management module 60 is connected to the PON chip module 20 and the processor module 30 and is used to provide power and reference voltage for each module of the industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology.

[0040] In an embodiment of the present application, the industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology further includes a clock module 70. The clock module 70 is connected to the PON chip module 20 and the processor module 30 and is used to generate clock signals. The clock module 70 can be implemented as a crystal oscillator.

[0041] The industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology realizes the organic integration of the traditional communication network technology PON and the distributed control system (DCS) of the process industry. While realizing the data intercommunication between PON and the fieldbus, it ensures the consistency of the product style. The industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology can achieve access to one or more fieldbuses on a single device, can realize almost all fieldbuses, thus can replace multiple modules, effectively reducing the equipment cost, improving the utilization efficiency of the equipment space, and at the same time is also a great benefit for the power supply of field devices.

[0042] The processor module 30 is the key for the industrial multi - protocol communication device based on PON technology to implement the conversion between PON signals and various different field signals. It is worth mentioning that, in the embodiment of this application, the processor module 30 has high flexibility and configurability. It mainly adapts to different protocol standards through software configuration, rather than requiring dedicated hardware support for each protocol. Therefore, it can replace multiple hardware communication units.

[0043] Specifically, in the embodiment of this application, the processor module 30 first receives and preliminarily parses the standard Ethernet signal from the PON chip module 20 to obtain a parsed data packet. Among them, the parsed data packet includes data frames, control information, etc.; the data frame includes a source address, a destination address, a type / length field, a data part, etc.; then, the processor module 30 adjusts the format and performs protocol conversion on the parsed data packet based on the requirements of the target field - bus protocol to obtain a field - bus signal.

[0044] Specifically, different protocols have different requirements for the data - packet structure. For example, Modbus RTU uses a simple master - slave architecture, while Ethernet / IP is based on the TCP / IP protocol stack. Therefore, data reorganization is required during the process that the processor module 30 adjusts the format and performs protocol conversion on the parsed data based on the requirements of the target field - bus protocol.

[0045] During the process of data reorganization, the processor module 30 needs to adjust the structure of the parsed data packet based on the requirements of the target field - bus protocol. For example, adjust the size, order, or hierarchical structure of the data packet to meet the requirements of the target field - bus protocol.

[0046] Specifically, during data reorganization, some fields in the parsed data packet may exist in the Ethernet format but are not directly applicable in the target field - bus protocol. The processor module 30 needs to perform field adjustment. More specifically, during the process of field adjustment, identify the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the target field - bus protocol, and adjust the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the target field - bus protocol to obtain fields that meet the requirements of the target field - bus protocol. More specifically, the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the target field - bus protocol can be deleted, re - positioned, or converted into fields that meet the requirements of the target field - bus protocol.

[0047] Each fieldbus protocol has its unique header format. For example, the data frame of the CAN protocol includes parts such as an identifier (ID), a control field, and a data field; while Profibus-DP has its special message format. The processor module 30 must accurately add this header information to ensure that the message can be correctly transmitted on the corresponding network. For some protocols, such as Modbus TCP, additional address information or control instructions also need to be added to facilitate the identification and processing of the received data by the devices in the network.

[0048] Accordingly, during the process of data reorganization, the header information of the data packet to be pre-sent to the fieldbus interface module 40 needs to be adjusted based on the requirements of the target fieldbus protocol. For example, modifying the header information of the data packet to be pre-sent to the fieldbus interface module 40 or adding header information to the data packet to be pre-sent to the fieldbus interface module 40; for example, in an application scenario, it may be necessary to add a header containing the source address and the destination address; in another application case, it may be necessary to add control information.

[0049] It is worth mentioning that in order to ensure the transmission accuracy of the fieldbus signal, the processor module 30 can add a check code to the header information so that the lower-level processing unit of the processor module 30 can determine the data integrity through the check code.

[0050] The data packet to be pre-sent to the fieldbus interface module 40 can be a parsed data packet after field adjustment, or a data packet after the parsed data packet after field adjustment has undergone multiple other structural adjustments.

[0051] Different protocols may use different encoding methods to represent data. For example, some protocols use ASCII encoding, while other protocols use binary format. The processor module 30 needs to perform encoding conversion on the parsed data packet. The encoding conversion of the parsed data packet can be performed before the header information adjustment or after the header information adjustment; usually it is performed before the header information adjustment. The encoding conversion of the parsed data packet can be synchronized with the field adjustment. It should be understood that the time node for performing the encoding conversion step of the parsed data packet can be flexibly arranged according to actual needs.

[0052] According to the working mechanism of the industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology, the present application proposes a method for an industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology. As Figure 4As shown, the method of the industrial multi - protocol communication device based on PON technology includes the steps: S110, converting an optical signal into an electrical signal through an optical module; S120, converting a PON signal into a standard Ethernet signal through a PON chip module; and S130, converting the standard Ethernet signal into a fieldbus signal through a processor module and sending the fieldbus signal to a fieldbus interface module.

[0053] In an embodiment of the present application, as Figure 5 shown, step S130 includes the steps: S131, receiving and preliminarily parsing the standard Ethernet signal from the PON chip module to obtain a parsed data packet; and S132, adjusting the format and performing protocol conversion on the parsed data packet based on the requirements of the protocol of the target fieldbus to obtain a fieldbus signal.

[0054] In an embodiment of the present application, as Figure 6 shown, step S132 includes the steps: S1321, performing data reorganization during the process of adjusting the format and performing protocol conversion on the parsed data packet based on the requirements of the protocol of the target fieldbus; during the data reorganization process, performing field adjustment; and S1322, adjusting the header information of the data packet to be pre - sent to the fieldbus interface module based on the requirements of the protocol of the target fieldbus.

[0055] In an embodiment of the present application, in step S1321, during the process of performing fields, identifying the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the protocol of the target fieldbus, and adjusting the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the protocol of the target fieldbus to obtain fields that meet the requirements of the protocol of the target fieldbus; for example, deleting the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the protocol of the target fieldbus, or re - positioning, or converting them into fields that meet the requirements of the protocol of the target fieldbus.

[0056] In an embodiment of the present application, in step S1322, during the process of adjusting the header information of the data packet to be pre - sent to the fieldbus interface module based on the requirements of the protocol of the target fieldbus, adding a check code to the header information.

[0057] In summary, the industrial multi - protocol communication device and method based on PON technology are elucidated. The industrial multi - protocol communication device based on PON technology can meet the multiple communication protocol requirements of various field devices, match multiple fieldbuses, allow one or more buses to access. In this way, there is no need to separately configure communication modules for multiple field devices with different protocol requirements, which can reduce the cost of communication devices and the space occupied by communication modules, improve space utilization, and also can relieve the power supply pressure to a certain extent.

[0058] The above description of the present application and its implementation manners is not restrictive. What is shown in the drawings is only one of the implementation manners of the present application, and the actual structure is not limited thereto. In general, if those of ordinary skill in the art are inspired by it and design, without creative efforts, structural manners and embodiments similar to the technical solution without departing from the creative concept of the present application, they shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

Claims

1. An industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology, characterized in that: include: An optical module, used to convert an optical signal into an electrical signal; a PON chip module, connected to the optical module, used to convert the PON signal into a standard Ethernet signal; A processor module, connected to the PON chip module, for converting a standard Ethernet signal into a field bus signal; And, a field bus interface module is connected to the processor module and is used to provide a plurality of interface circuits.

2. The industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology according to claim 1, characterized in that: The processor module is configured to: receive and preliminarily parse the standard Ethernet signal from the PON chip module to obtain a parsed data packet; and perform format adjustment and protocol conversion on the parsed data packet based on the requirements of the target field bus protocol to obtain a field bus signal; the processor module is further configured to: perform data reorganization in the process of format adjustment and protocol conversion on the parsed data packet based on the requirements of the target field bus protocol; in the process of data reorganization, perform field adjustment and adjust the header information of the data packet pre-sent to the field bus interface module based on the requirements of the target field bus protocol.

3. The industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology according to claim 2, characterized in that: The processor module is further configured to add a checksum to the header information during the process of adjusting the header information of the data packet pre-sent to the fieldbus interface module based on the requirements of the target fieldbus protocol.

4. The industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology according to claim 1, characterized in that: The industrial multi-protocol communication device based on PON technology also includes: a data storage module and a power management module; the data storage module is connected to the PON chip module and the processor module; the power management module is connected to the PON chip module and the processor module.

5. An industrial multi-protocol communication method based on PON technology, characterized in that: The method comprises the following steps: converting an optical signal into an electrical signal through an optical module; converting a PON signal into a standard Ethernet signal through a PON chip module; and converting the standard Ethernet signal into a field bus signal through a processor module and sending the field bus signal to a field bus interface module.

6. The industrial multi-protocol communication method based on PON technology according to claim 5, characterized in that: In the process of converting the standard Ethernet signal into the field bus signal, the standard Ethernet signal from the PON chip module is received and preliminarily parsed to obtain a parsed data packet; The format of the parsed data packet is adjusted and the protocol is converted based on the requirements of the target field bus protocol to obtain a field bus signal.

7. The industrial multi-protocol communication method based on PON technology according to claim 6, characterized in that: Reorganize the data in the process of format adjustment and protocol conversion of the parsed data packets based on the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus; During the data reorganization process, field adjustment is performed; wherein, the field adjustment includes: identifying the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the protocol of the target field bus, and adjusting the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the protocol of the target field bus to obtain fields that meet the requirements of the protocol of the target field bus.

8. The industrial multi-protocol communication method based on PON technology according to claim 7, characterized in that: During the field adjustment process, the fields in the parsed data packet that are not applicable to the target field bus protocol are deleted, or relocated, or converted into fields that meet the requirements of the target field bus protocol.

9. The industrial multi-protocol communication method based on PON technology according to claim 8, characterized in that: During the data reorganization process, the header information of the data packet pre-sent to the fieldbus interface module is adjusted based on the requirements of the target fieldbus protocol.

10. The industrial multi-protocol communication method based on PON technology according to claim 9, characterized in that: In the process of adjusting the header information of the data packet pre-sent to the field bus interface module based on the requirements of the target field bus protocol, a check code is added to the header information.

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