Terminology and abbreviations

Configuration

IO-device and IO-controller definition in an engineering tool.

Commissioning

Device initialization (Configuration is downloaded to IO-controller).

Engineering tool

A desktop program for configuring PLC. For example Siemens TIA portal.

Abbreviations

ACK

Positively acknowledge

AKA

Also Known As

ALPMI

Alarm Protocol Machine Initiator

ALPMR

Alarm Protocol Machine Responder

AMR

Asset Management Record

AP

?

APDU

Application Protocol Data Unit

API

Application Programming Identifier (uint32). Used to differentiate between for example user profiles. Sometimes named “Profile ID”.

API

Application Programming Interface. Application implementers use the API of the p-net Profinet stack.

APMR

Acyclic Protocol Machine Receiver. A state machine in the IO device implementation.

APMS

Acyclic Protocol Machine Sender. A state machine in the IO device implementation.

APMX

General term for APMR and APMS

APO

Application Process Object

AR

Application Relation

ARP

Address Resolution Protocol, used to translate from an IP address to a MAC address.

AREP

Application Relationship End Point (uint32), pretty much an index into an array of AR.

ASDU

Application Service Data Unit

ASE

Application Service Element. For example logbook, time and diagnosis.

CC

Conformance Class (Performance level A to D)

CIDR

Classless Inter-Domain Routing. The CIDR notation /24 tells how many bits of the netmask that should be enabled.

CiR

Configuration in Run

CM

Context Management

CMDEV

Context Management Protocol Machine Device

CMI

CM Initiator

CMINA

Context Management Ip and Name Assignment protocol machine

CMIO

Context Management Input Output protocol machine

CMPBE

Context Management Parameter Begin End protocol machine

CMRDR

Context Management Read Record Responder protocol machine, responds to parameter read from the IO-controller

CMRPC

Context Management RPC protocol machine

CMWRR

Context Management Write Record Responder protocol machine

CMSM

Context Management Surveillance protocol Machine, monitors the establishment of a connection. Also written as CM Server Protocol machine.

CP

Communication Profile. For example Profinet conformance class B is also known as CP 3/5.

CPF

Communication Profile Family. Profinet and Profibus is CPF = 3, Ethercat is CPF = 12.

CPM

Consumer Protocol Machine, for receiving cyclic data

CPU

Central Processing Unit

CR

Communication Relation (Part of AR).

CREP

Communication Relationship EndPoint (uint32), pretty much an index into an array of input and output CR.

DA

Destination Address. It is the MAC address of the receiver.

DAP

Device Access Point

DCE

Distributed Computing Environment. Used with RPC.

DCP

Discovery and basic Configuration Protocol. Runs over Ethernet layer 2 (not IP or UDP).

DFP

Dynamic Frame Packing. Used with IRT protocol.

DHCP

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, for allocating IP addresses to devices.

DHT

Data Hold Timer

DLL

Data Link Layer

DNS

Domain Name System, for converting from host name to IP address.

DT

Device Tool

DUT

Device Under Test

EMC

ElectroMagnetic Compatibility

EPM

EndPoint Mapper

ES

Engineering System

FAL

Fieldbus Application Layer

FSPM

FAL Service Protocol Machines

FSU

Fast Start Up (Store communication parameters in IO devices)

GAP

?

GSD

General Station Description. An XML file describing an IO-Device.

GSDML

GSD Markup Language

GUI

Graphical User Interface

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol

I&M

Identification & Maintenance. Has different blocks; IM0 to IM??.

ICMP

Internet Control Message Protocol. (Sent in an IP packet)

IDNA

Internationalized Domain Names for Applications

IGMP

Internet Group Management Protocol. For multicast groups. Used in IPv4.

IO

Input Output

IOC

IO Controller (Typically a PLC)

IOD

IO Device. An input-output device controlled by a PLC via Profinet communication.

IOCS

IO Consumer Status. Reported by IO-device (for output data) and IO-controller (for input data), per subslot. (uint8)

IOCR

IO Communication Relation

IOPS

IO Provider Status. Describes validity of IO data per subslot. Sent by IO-device (for input data) or IO-controller (for output data) together with data. (uint8)

IOxS

General term for IOCS and IOPS.

IP

Internet Protocol

IRT

Isochronous Real-Time

LAN

Local Area Network

LLDP

Link Layer Discovery Protocol, for neighborhood detection.

LT

Length and Type field in Ethernet frame. Also known as EtherType.

MAC

Media Access Control

MAU

Medium Attachment Unit. Ethernet transceiver type. 0x0 = radio, 0x10 = Media type copper 100BaseTXFD

MC

Multicast (as opposed to unicast)

MC

Multicore (Codesys runtime variant for Raspberry Pi)

MDNS

Multicast DNS. A UDS based protocol for resolving hostname to IP address. Implemented by Bonjour and Avahi.

MIB

Management Information Base. File format for SNMP?

MRP

Media Redundancy Protocol

MRPD

Media Redundancy for Planned Duplication

MTU

Maximum Transfer Unit. The largest packet a network interface can handle. Typically 1500 bytes. This includes the IP header, but not the Ethernet header.

NACK

Negatively acknowledge

NDR

Network Data Representation. A header as first part of the DCE/RPC payload (sent via UDP). Contains info on how large the payload is, and how large responses that can be accepted.

NME

Network Management Engine

OID

Object IDentifier

OS

Operating System

OUI

Organizationally Unique Identifier. This is the three first bytes of the MAC address. The value for Profinet Multicast is 01:0E:CF.

PA

Process Automation (as opposed to production automation)

PCA

Provider, Consumer or Alarm.

PCP

Priority Code Point, for VLAN

PDEV

Physical Device management. Physical interface and switch ports of a Profinet field device.

PDU

Protocol Data Unit

PI

PROFIBUS & PROFINET International. The Profinet interest group.

PICO

PI Certification Office

PITL

PI Test Laboratories. Performs certification testing.

PLC

Programmable Logic Controller. Often used as a Profinet IO-controller.

PN

See PROFINET

PNIO

Profinet IO protocol

PNO

PROFIBUS Nutzerorganisation e.V, located in Germany.

POF

?

PPM

Cyclic Provider Protocol Machine

PROFINET

Process Field Net

PS

?

PTCP

Precision Transparent Clock Protocol

RPC

Remote Procedure Call. The protocol DCE/RPC runs on UDP.

RS

Reporting system

RSI

?

RTA

RealTime Acyclic protocol

RTC

RealTime Cyclic protocol

RTE

Real Time Ethernet

RTOS

Real Time Operating System

SA

Source Address. It is the MAC address of the sender.

SAM

Source Address of ? Uses to restrict incoming DCP communication to a single remote MAC address (for 3 seconds).

SCL

Structured Control Language. Siemens name for the structured text (ST) programming language for PLCs.

SDU

?

SNMP

Simple Network Management Protocol. For network topology detection.

ST

Structured Text. A programming language for PLCs.

STX

See ST.

TIA

Totally Integrated Automation. An automation portal (engineering tool) by Siemens.

TCI

Tool Calling Interface (The engineering tool can call specialized device-related tools)

TCP

Transmission Control Protocol, used on top of IP.

TLV

Type-Length-Value. A data structure in an LLDP Ethernet frame.

TPID

Tag protocol identifier, for VLAN.

TSN

Time-Sensitive Networking

TTL

Time to live. A field in an LLDP Ethernet frames.

UC

Unicast (as opposed to multicast)

UDP

User Datagram Protocol

USI

User Structure Identifier (unit16)

UUID

Universally Unique Identifier

VLAN

Virtual LAN

VID

VLAN identifier

WLAN

Wireless LAN

XML

eXtended Markup Language