At last year's SPS IPC Drives, Belden presented a model in which the automation pyramid slowly transforms into an automation column in order to meet the requirements of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0. At this year's trade fair, Belden and Beck IPC are now demonstrating in a joint application how such an automation pillar - from the sensor to the cloud - can function in practice. The two companies see Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) as the pioneer for this transformation. It is therefore no coincidence that a TSN network forms the backbone of the demo. This network uses an optical data cable and Hirschmann Ethernet switches to connect the Beck IPC stand in Hall 9 and the Belden stand in Hall 10. The Belden stand represents the 'Factory Backbone' level of the automation column. This is where the network management and the Beck IPC controller, which is connected to the Beck IPC stand via the TSN network, are located. The Beck IPC stand symbolically represents the field level. This is where a pick & place robot and several Lumberg Distributed Control Units operate, which are controlled by the Beck IPC controller on the Belden stand. Furthermore, the other stand can be monitored via the TSN connection using a high-resolution IP camera. The TSN network represents the connection level between the cloud and the sensor and transmits control data, video streams and background data simultaneously, reliably and without feedback. TSN makes it possible to transmit the time-critical control data, which is transmitted via the Ethercat protocol over TSN, separately from the high-resolution video stream. The configuration and monitoring data are transmitted separately in a third traffic class so as not to interfere with either the control data or the video display.

Visitors to both stands will also be able to gain an insight into network management - the configuration of TSN - and the display of the 'digital twin': Hirschmann Industrial Hivision allows the entire network to be monitored and configured centrally, while Fusion Connect from Autodesk connects the physical world with the data of the cyber world.