| Semester 1, 2023 Toowoomba On-campus | |
| Units : | 1 |
| School or Department : | School of Engineering |
| Grading basis : | Graded |
| Course fee schedule : | /current-students/administration/fees/fee-schedules |
Staffing
Course Coordinator:
Requisites
Pre-requisite: ELE2601 or Students must be enrolled in the following Program: GCNS, GDNS, MENS or MEPR
Overview
In order to remain competitive, industrial companies are using advanced technologies to automate their processes and operations. Seamless real-time communication between human machine interfaces (HMIs), programmable logic controllers (PLCs), sensors and actuators is essential to industrial automation. Adoption of suitable protocols ensures successful exchanges of data. There are a relatively large number of industrial communication protocols that have been developed over the last few decades. This course will help students develop the skills they will need as professional engineers to critically evaluate a given protocol and assess its suitability for different industrial applications.
The course focuses on industrial control networks. It builds upon knowledge and skills developed in undergraduate courses on data communication systems typically covering traditional local area network protocols such as Ethernet and higher level protocols such as TCP/IP. The major differences between industrial networks and traditional computer networks are considered in detail. Factors influencing the choice of industrial communication protocols for given applications are analysed and network performance parameters are deduced and evaluated.
Course learning outcomes
On successful completion of this course students should be able to:
- Explain the technological development of industrial networks from telemetry systems to modern SCADA systems
- List and explain the differences between industrial network communication protocols and the protocols used in general computer networking.
- Use the seven-layer OSI model as a framework to understand and compare commonly used industrial protocols such as EthernetIP, Modbus, Profibus and DNP3.
- Evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of different industrial protocols and assess their suitability for particular applications
- Design an industrial communications network for a given application such as building services, power systems automation, water treatment and factory automation
- Apply standard techniques to assess the likely performance of a network and interpret network data to verify these calculations.
- Communicate technical information in a professional manner.
Topics
| Description | Weighting(%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Historical developments of industrial protocols | 10.00 |
| 2. | Communication protocol standards and their hardware implementation | 30.00 |
| 3. | Factors influencing protocol selection and performance | 20.00 |
| 4. | Practical network design considerations for given applications | 20.00 |
| 5. | Industrial Communication Network Performance Evaluation | 20.00 |
Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed
Student workload expectations
To do well in this subject, students are expected to commit approximately 10 hours per week including class contact hours, independent study, and all assessment tasks. If you are undertaking additional activities, which may include placements and residential schools, the weekly workload hours may vary.
Assessment details
| Description | Group Assessment |
Weighting (%) | Course learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiz A1 of 3 | No | 10 | 1,3 |
| Report A2 of 3 | No | 20 | 1,2,3,4,7 |
| Presentation (ind, grp, mltmd) A3 of 3 | No | 20 | 1,2,3,4,7 |
| Design B1 of 2 | No | 10 | 4,5,7 |
| Design B2 of 2 | No | 20 | 4,5,7 |
| Report | No | 20 | 4,6,7 |