DIVAN: A network calculator for the off-line performance analysis of Virtual Automation Networks

Communication solutions based on Ethernet technologies are becoming popular in many industrial environments. The next step is to build Virtual Automation Networks (VAN) on top of these technologies using public and private networks. Not only the performance estimation of local industrial networks is important, there is a demand to estimate performances of VAN connected industrial domains. This paper describes a VAN simulation framework which can assess the performance of different Real-Time Ethernet (RTE) networks in a heterogeneous environment. With valid models, parameters and network configurations, the performance results which complied to the metrics in IEC 61784 can be delivered.