netFIELD Applications - Packing and shipping connectivity logic in app containers
The netFIELD Application encompasses Hilscher's software domain, which packs and deploys applications in containers. Its focus is on providing software gateways to achieve data connectivity in a standardized manner. These gateways aggregate and receive information on one end, format it into structured JSON objects, and forward it to the other end. The containers complement customer applications whenever data connectivity is a challenge.
netFIELD App … | Status | Description | Product name | Part number | Hardware prerequisites | License model | Web presence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MQTT Broker |
| The “netFIELD App MQTT Broker” is the open-source MQTT Message Broker Mosquitto packed in a container and runs on netFIELD Edge devices. | NFA-MQT-SUB | 1917.013 | - | Free with a netFIELD Cloud subscription |
|
Platform Connector |
| The “netFIELD App Platform Connector” allows the user-definable data exchange between netFIELD Edge devices and the netFIELD Cloud. | NFA-PFC-SUB | 1917.000 | - | Free with a netFIELD Cloud subscription | |
Edge Monitor |
| The “netFIELD App Edge Monitor” monitors the utilization (resource consumption, online status, and configuration information) of netFIELD Edge devices and transmits this information to netFIELD Cloud | NFA-EDM-SUB | 1917.005 | - | Free with a netFIELD Cloud subscription | |
License Server |
| The "netFIELD App License Server" is a network license server for embedded devices and platforms. It stores and hosts software licenses a user has installed into it over its web ui and is then providing the licenses information to requesting apps on demand. | NFA-LIC-SRV | 1917.099 | - | Free and public to everyone | |
PROFINET Tap |
| The “netFIELD App PROFINET Tap” analyzes PROFINET network traffic in real time, filters the process data exchanged between the devices and the controller and tranforms it into the IIoT protocol MQTT as a client. | NFA-PNT-OTP | 1917.057 | LAN port or netX100 network controller ports | Perpedual license | |
EtherCAT Tap |
| The “netFIELD App EtherCAT” analyzes EtherCAT network traffic in real time, filters the process data exchanged between the devices and the controller and tranforms it into the IIoT protocol MQTT as a client. | NFA-ECT-OTP | 1917.058 | netX100 network controller ports | Perpedual license | |
IO-Link adapter |
| The "netFIELD App OPC UA IO-Link Adapter" serves as a software gateway that is periodically extracting process data of IO-Link devices from multiple IO-Link masters the same time that do support services in accordance with the OPC UA for IO-Link Companion Specification and converting it into MQTT topics. | NFA-OPA-OTP | 1917.061 | - | Perpedual license | |
IO-Link configurator | Announced | The "netFIELD App IO-Link Configurator" enables configuring IO-Link devices over those IO-Link masters that do support services in accordance with the OPC UA for IO-Link Companion Specification. | NFA-IOC-OTP | 1917.062 | - | Perpedual license | |
MQTT to OPC UA converter | Announced | The “netFIELD App MQTT to OPC UA Converter” subscribes to configurable topics from an MQTT broker and converts the data to an secondary-side operated OPC UA server | NFA-OPS-OPT | 1917.065 | - | Free with a netFIELD Cloud subscription |
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OPC UA to MQTT converter | Announced | The "netFIELD App OPC UA to MQTT Converter" functions as an OPC UA client, aggregating configurable data objects from one or more OPC UA servers and publishing them as topics to an external MQTT broker | NFA-OPC-OPT | 1917.059 | - | Free with a netFIELD Cloud subscription |
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The input protocols supported by various containers are those commonly found in typical industrial environments, such as PROFINET, EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP, or even IoT protocols like OPC UA. All containers use the MQTT protocol as a common protocol for outbound communication. This, in turn, means that in every case, a complementary MQTT broker is required to serve as a central data hub through which every informative data message is passed and shared among other applications.
Message transmission via the MQTT message bus occurs in two ways: there are applications that want to send data (referred to as publishers) and those that want to receive data (referred to as subscribers), both commonly known as MQTT clients. The clients establish a connection to the MQTT broker and are data-coupled using unified and known to each other labels called topics. opics name the subject of a data message and are encoded as unique and distinguishable UTF-8 encoded strings, typically hierarchically divided and separated by a forward slash "/" between the levels.
All Hilscher containers handle MQTT topic names and their JSON-encoded payload according to the reference architecture and guidelines of the Open Industry 4.0 Alliance (OI4). This makes them compatible with all sorts of other applications conforming to this information model and service. OI4 compatibility ensures seamless information exchange between apps and expedites the creation of a value-oriented Industry 4.0 solution such as data visualization, analysis, anomaly detection, and machine learning.
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