ODVA celebrated its 30th anniversary at its 23rd annual members meeting in Clearwater, Fla., on Mar. 19-20, and traced the evolution and present impacts of its core Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) specifications and technology, which serves as the backbone of its EtherNet/IP protocol and automation network.
“ODVA was founded in 1995 to promote DeviceNet, introduced ControlNet in 1997 and EtherNet/IP in 2001, and has continuously launched technologies and services ever since,” said Dr. Al Beydoun, president and executive director of ODVA. “We’ve continuously adjusted CIP’s specifications to provide better solutions, continue to certify EtherNet/IP products, and steadily grew to today’s 415 members worldwide, including 30 new vendors. This is also accomplished by collaborating with other standards development organizations (SDO) and other partners. The latest effort is Ethernet Advanced Physical Layer (APL), which is bringing many partners together to allow Ethernet to be used in hazardous areas. These partnerships are why we’re successful and how we keep driving innovations.”
EtherNet/IP transformed over the past year by further adapting to process-industry requirements and by adding more security capabilities. The protocol expanded its process device profiles that include RTD and thermocouple temperature along with level sensors, combining concurrent connections and CIP Safety, support for PA-DIM, Version 1.1, and a new device-based firewall and a pull model for configuring to CIP Security.
SIGs on security
The event was attended by more 100 visitors from almost 40 companies, who took in updates from ODVA’s many special interest groups (SIG). For example, David Brandt, chair of the EtherNet/IP Physical Layer SIG, reported on its efforts to harmonize with the Profibus/Profinet International organization on single-pair Ethernet (SPE) in non-hazardous locations.
The gathering also addressed the European Union’s (EU) upcoming Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and its expected impact on ODVA’s CIP Security specification, suppliers and end-users, especially when it requires risk assessments (RA) and baked-in cybersecurity for products sold into the EU starting in December 2027.
“We’re well-positioned to meet CRA’s four main requirements of security by default, preventing unauthorized access, data confidentiality and data integrity,” said Jack Visoky, vice chair of ODVA’s EtherNet/IP system architecture SIG) and a principal engineer and security architect at Rockwell Automation. “They fit well with CIP Security, and are well met by it.”
AI and other issues
The gathering also addressed ongoing digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) issues, virtualized PLCs and controllers, simplifying addressing for Internet protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) and EtherNet/IP, wireless 5G and the CIP Motion specification, metadata for CIP devices, carbon neutrality and the CIP Energy specification, and EtherNet/IP in-cabinet and concurrent connections.
Keynotes addresses included “Industry 4.0 security: protocols, risks, trends and challenges" by Pedro Umbelino, principal research scientist at Bitsight Technologies, and "Key trends in smart manufacturing and operational resilience to help navigate digital transformation" by Craig Resnick, VP at ARC Advisory Group.
ODVA’s 23rd annual meeting also featured many technical presentation, including:
- IPv6 upcoming integration with EtherNet/IP after updates to the specification are finalized and published
- Tools available to enable time synchronization for 5G and how they relate to CIP Motion
- CIP Security protections, including device identity management, secure communication protocols and vulnerability mitigation to help comply with CRA and EU’s Machinery Safety Act
- AI and machine learning (ML) applications in the autonomous train market
- Potential addition of metadata to ODVA’s device description files to provide contextualized presentation of devices both off-line and on-line
- Potential for implementing Bluetooth for industrial use cases with CIP communications as the application layer interface for devices and software clients
- CIP Energy building blocks for real-time energy monitoring, dynamic demand-response capabilities, and energy optimization algorithms needed to achieve carbon neutrality
- ODVA defined best practices for Concurrent Connections redundancy and a brief plan for adoption and implementation of Concurrent Connections
- Protecting electronic data sheet (EDS) files that describe CIP devices
- Use cases that FieldComm Group (FCG), ODVA, Profibus & Profinet International (PI) and OPC Foundation wish to address
- Expansion of EtherNet/IP’s in-cabinet ecosystem
- User perspective on wired EtherNet/IP network architectures
To access technical papers and presentations at the 23rd annual event or prior meetings, visit https://www.odva.org/news-events/industry-conference/library-of-proceedings
