Comitato Elettrotecnico Italiano

Industrial communication networks - Fieldbus specifications Part 6-4: Application layer protocol specification - Type 4 elements
 N EN 61158-6-4

Annotation

General

The fieldbus application layer (FAL) provides user programs with a means to access the fieldbus communication environment. In this respect, the FAL can be viewed as a “window between corresponding application programs.”

This standard provides common elements for basic time-critical and non-time-critical messaging communications between application programs in an automation environment and material specific to Type 4 fieldbus. The term “time-critical” is used to represent the presence of a time-window, within which one or more specified actions are required to be completed with some defined level of certainty. Failure to complete specified actions within the time window risks failure of the applications requesting the actions, with attendant risk to equipment, plant and possibly human life.

This standard specifies interactions between remote applications and defines the externally visible behavior provided by the Type 4 fieldbus application layer in terms of

a) the formal abstract syntax defining the application layer protocol data units conveyed between communicating application entities;

b) the transfer syntax defining encoding rules that are applied to the application layer protocol data units;

c) the application context state machine defining the application service behavior visible between communicating application entities;

d) the application relationship state machines defining the communication behavior visible between communicating application entities.