A PROFINET device can be exchanged due to topology information and configured automatically. Additional actions are not necessary.
The requirement is that you have configured the peer ports for the PROFINET devices (see topology configuration) and that the set devices support neighborhood detection (conformance class B devices or support of LLDP and SNMP protocols). Then the controller can assign station names to the devices automatically.
With this feature, you can replace devices without an engineering or supervisor tool. You set the defective device at the same position in the network with an unconfigured replacement device (out of the box). Additional actions are not necessary.
When the requirements (declaration of topology, neighborhood detection) for the entire network are specified, the overall system can be configured. This is very useful for commissioning serial machinery.
At present, this function is supported only by the CODESYS PROFINET stack and by the CIFX controller (firmware version 3.x and later).
See also