On-line fuzzy performance management of Profibus networks

Most networks for automation are tuned to an expected traffic condition at their design stage. During their actual operation, however, the networks experience considerable changes in traffic from time to time. These traffic changes caused by common events like machine failure and production schedule change may adversely affect the network performance and, in turn, the performance of the connected devices. This paper presents experimental results on performance management of a Profibus¯fieldbus message specification (FMS) network. The performance management aims to maintain a uniform level of network performance at all stations under changing network traffic. The performance management algorithm monitors the performance of individual network stations and commands the stations to change their timer values in order to have comparable performance at all stations. In order to determine the amount of timer change, the algorithm employs a set of fuzzy rules. This algorithm has been evaluated on a Profibus network.