Ingeteam has complemented the INGESYS IC3 product range with a redundant Hot-Standby solution (without cycle loss) aimed at satisfying high-availability requirements in sectors such as energy, transport and industry.

The main characteristics of this redundant solution are as follows:

Symmetrical 1oo2 Hot-Standby Solution

•     Both processor units access the process inputs, which enables both processor units to process and update the outputs with the same application program. Only the active processor unit is responsible for refreshing the outputs.
•     Redundant elements are diagnosed in all cycles.
•     In the case of an error, switching to the redundant element is automatic, isolating the erroneous element.

 100% availability after the first error.

•     The system's maximum reaction time to an error is a task's cycle time. Switching to the element while the status is correct is performed without stopping the process. (Hot-Standby redundancy).
•     Ethernet communication switching takes less than 300 ms.
•     The equipment switches automatically to the system that is working best.
•     Redundant systems are joined by a double link to increase the solution's availability.
•     Hotswapping a redundant system while the active system monitors the plant.    
•     If both redundant systems are in the same operating condition (for example, they have the same damaged element), automatic switching is not performed.

Open solution

This permits optimum integration in the plant's control network.

•     Standard field bus support (with duplicated masters without bus redundancy or with redundant buses if the field bus supports it, e.g. CanOpen).
•     The use of floating IP addresses permits direct integration into networks with non-redundant elements. 100 % interoperability.

Optimisation of engineering tasks.

•     The configuration of a redundant system is highly simplified. Once the system is configured, it behaves like a normal non-redundant system for the user.
•     The overload of a redundant solution for a processor unit is less than 10%.
•     You can change the application online.
•     The active system automatically updates the redundant system's configuration and memory during the startup.

Scope of the redundant solution

•     Power source redundancy.
•     Processor unit redundancy.
•     Redundancy of I/Os with shared or duplicated architectures.
•     Field buses and Ethernet communications redundancy.