Decentralised periphery

Decentralized periphery (DP) is a term from automation technology and describes the connection of distributed control electronics for a (larger) machine to a central CPU via a bus system . The term has become popular with the advent of field buses such as the Profibus .

In the past, a CPU with the associated input and output channels was set up centrally in automation technology. The sensors and actuators distributed over the machine were wired to the central control. The disadvantage of this solution was the high cabling effort (costs, susceptibility to failure).

In the decentralized periphery, input and output modules etc. are placed in the vicinity of the associated sensors and actuators. The connection to the CPU is made via a bus system and special head assemblies or interface modules that have a corresponding bus interface ( Profibus , Profinet, etc.).

Instead of many individual wires to the central CPU, the sensors and actuators only need to be wired to the decentralized periphery. From there only a bus line leads to the CPU. However, this simple and flexible structure has to be bought with additional costs for the interface modules.

Since the interface modules are not independent CPUs, but are assigned to a master (i.e. a CPU) as slaves and the arithmetic operations continue to take place in the CPU, the programming of a DP system does not differ significantly from that of a centrally structured system.

literature

• Hans Berger: Automation with SIMATIC S7-1500 . Ed .: Siemens AG. Publicis Pixelpark, Erlangen 2019.
• Dietmar Dietrich, Herbert Schweinzer: Fieldbus technology in research, development and application . Contributions to the fieldbus conference FeT '97 in Vienna . October 1997.