Question from the PROFIsafe Designer Workshop in October 2023:
Does there exist a "safe router" which can bundle and redistribute safety data? This could be used to, e.g., distribute safety data from one safety function (consisting of senor/logic/actuator) to additionally affected actuators.
Safe Router?
PS-cE wrote: ↑13 Nov 2023, 18:05 Question from the PROFIsafe Designer Workshop in October 2023:
Does there exist a "safe router" which can bundle and redistribute safety data? This could be used to, e.g., distribute safety data from one safety function (consisting of senor/logic/actuator) to additionally affected actuators.
Such a "safe router" does not exist for PROFIsafe. This would mean that somebody would have to perform a safety-related implementation of a router, and we have seen examples of how many things can go wrong in such a component (memory mess-ups, wrong addressing, wrong replaying of old data etc). Such a component would be prohibitively expensive.
It is much easier and cheaper to leave the router where it is today, namely in the "black channel", where it may possibly exhibit all sorts of erronous behavior. There, we can also mix and match all sorts of network components as needed, independent of the logical routing of safety information.
The additional distribution of safety data as mentioned would then be performed as part of the logic of safety applications, where one safety function is simply acting on several actuators (which is a common pattern for many applications).