PRP uses two independent networks in parallel and does not change the active topology
of the networks. Each message is transmitted by the sender node parallelly over both
networks. In the receiving node, the first received message on one of two networks
is processed while its later duplicate is discarded. Such details like duplicated message
transmission on two networks and messages reception with duplicate detection and
rejection are managed by the low-level PRP layer of the communication stack architecture,
with the two physical networks being hidden from the higher layers. Consequently, unlike
RSTP-based redundant systems, the PRP-based communication networks are continuously
available with no recovery delay in case of a single failure occurrence.
The PRP protocol implemented in Easergy P3 relays is specified in the IEC62439-3 (Clause
4) standard and is available when a dual-port, 100 Mbps Ethernet interface card is used.
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2 PRP network
A PRP network is a pair of independently powered local area networks (LANs) with any
topologies (tree, ring or mesh) that may introduce different transmission delays between
nodes from other networks. The structure is presented in Figure 1.
SAN SAN
SAN
RedBox
RedBox
SAN
LAN_B
SAN
LAN_A
DAN
DAN SAN
Single attached nodes (SANs) that represent devices with a single Ethernet interface.
SANs are able to communicate with devices connected to the same LAN and they
are responsible for non-critical system functions.
Double attached nodes (DANs) represent devices with double Ethernet interfaces
and PRP protocol support. DANs are able to communicate with all devices from both
LANs. These are normally critical devices whose connection needs to be redundant.
A redundancy box (RedBox) is used to create a virtual DAN connected to both LANs
from devices with a single Ethernet interface. The RedBox allows SANs
to communicate with devices from both LANs because it has its own unique IP
address and acts as a gateway to the PRP network.
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3 PRP operation
PRP assumes that all devices demanding high a availability of their communication are
equipped with dual-port Ethernet interfaces and connected to two separate and
independent local area networks, LAN_A as primary and LAN_B as redundant. Each
message is then transmitted by the sender node on both LAN_A (as “A”-frame) and on
LAN_B (as “B”-frame). The receiving node captures eventually both frames but only the
first received is further processed while the second received is recognized as a duplicate
and rejected from further processing. This principle of operation allows for seamless fault
tolerance of any single network link failure.
„B“-
frame „A“-
frame
The basic Ethernet frame to be sent to the network is composed of the following fields:
preamble dest_addr src_addr type LSDU FCS
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PRP extends the basic Ethernet frame of a so-called redundancy control trailer to the
following structure transmitted on both networks:
preamble dest_addr src_addr type LSDU Seq LAN id Size PRP suffix FCS
Fast detection of frame reception from a wrong LAN, which indicates physical network
connection problems.
Message counts to show how many messages have been received.
Error counts to show whether frames were not received or were sent/received on the
wrong LAN.
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4 Hardware options
Two hardware options are provided to implement a dual-port Ethernet interface:
Interface card with two RJ-45 ports
Interface card with two fiber-optic LC ports
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5 Technical details
Product details related to the operation in PRP networks:
Easergy P3x3x and Easergy P3UX devices offer hardware configuration with two
redundant Ethernet ports and PRP support.
Two hardware versions, with RJ ports and with LC optical fibre ports, are available.
Easergy P3 device is able to work as a double attached node (DAN) in PRP networks.
Configuration of the PRP is available in the Easergy Pro setting and configuration
tool (later called Easergy Pro) and transparent for any Ethernet-based protocols.
Loss of a single LAN connection causes no losses in application data transmitted
over Ethernet.
Easergy P3 device supports cyclic transmission of PRP supervision frame with a
configurable interval (LifeCheckInterval), default 5 s (+/- 10 ms).
There is a single MAC address for the two redundant physical interfaces.
There is a single IP address used by both physical interfaces.
The performance of Easergy P3 Ethernet interface is not limited by using PRP.
PRP operation in an Easergy P3 device does not require any limitation in the number
of connected DANs in PRP networks.
The default value of the duplicate discard timeout parameter (duration that the
received message Sequence number will be held to detect and discard a duplicate
message) is 400 ms. Because of the buffering capacity, it is recommend to configure
a value not greater than 500 ms.
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None
RSTP
PRP
PRP is available only for selected Easergy P3 types (3xx series and Easergy P3UX) when a
dual-port Ethernet interface card is used.
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Publishing: 10/2017
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