Softing offers extended functionalities with smartLink product family

Two product releases from Softing’s smartLink family offer enhanced functionalities for plant asset management and the implementation of Industry 4.0 connectivity in industrial networks.

The smartLink product family from Softing enables end customers to make efficient use of connectivity at the interface between OT and IT. The products allow simple and scalable integration of device data into plant asset management applications. The new versions of smartLink HW-DP v1.20 and smartLink SW-HT v1.20, which are now available, offer enhanced functionalities for data transfer and connectivity.

The smartLink HW-DP products enable access to process, asset, and diagnostic data from Profibus devices and Hart devices connected to Profibus remote I/O, as well as secure export to any system inside and outside the user’s own network. The new version v1.20 now adds support for providing asset and diagnostic data from field devices via MQTT. This allows easy integration into typical IoT system architectures, such as the Namur Open Architecture (NOA) or the IoT reference architectures of large cloud platforms.

Meanwhile, smartLink SW-HT allows access to configuration and diagnostic data via Emerson’s AMS Device Manager or other Hart IP-enabled plant asset management applications. As the only solution available on the market, smartLink SW-HT has so far supported Schneider Electric M580 controllers and drop I/O as well as Allen-Bradley controllers and remote I/O. Version v1.20 now also connects Emerson AMS Device Manager to Hart devices connected to R.Stahl IS1+ remote I/O.

More and more modern remote I/O are using Ethernet as a connection to the controller. Now smartLink SW-HT takes this trend into account by providing an Ethernet connection for tunneling HART commands to remote I/O. As a Docker container, smartLink SW-HT can be managed via Kubernetes-based management platforms or services of the major cloud platforms.

Both new product versions expand the possibilities for end customers to implement open, standards-based, and scalable system architectures with the smartLink product family and to integrate connectivity into IT-managed edge solutions.