Information About Industrial Asset Discovery
The Industrial Asset Discovery (IAD) feature enables users to view details of directly connected end devices. IAD uses discovery messages included in industrial protocols such as Common Industrial Protocol (CIP) and Profinet to discover these details. Because the IE switches are using the same protocol messages as CIP and Profinet devices, there will be no impact to the end devices. End devices will respond normally.
Industrial networks include end devices such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) that are used for control process automation. These devices are connected to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) applications that run protocols such as CIP and Profinet to monitor, control, and manage the end devices. Centralized CIP/Profinet controllers collect device information through broadcast discovery and maintain a device inventory database. However, this information does not include end device layer 2 network connectivity information such as switch, interface, location, and VLAN, which is useful for operators to physically locate and keep track of end devices.
IAD discovery allows detailed location and layer 2 connectivity information to be collected from end devices. This device information is processed and maintained in a local database on the switch. Information collected through CIP/Profinet discovery can be combined with IP device tracking information to provide detailed information about end devices.
Industrial Asset Discovery Operation
When IAD is enabled, after the IE switch boots up, IAD waits for a pre-defined period of time and then sends discovery messages to the industrial protocols that are enabled. Subsequently, the notification is sent at periodic intervals. You can configure this interval using the iad refresh-interval command. You can enable and disable discovery for any or all of the protocols in IAD: CIP, Profinet, IP Device Tracking (IPDT), Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), and Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP).
The database is automatically refreshed if an interface goes down and comes back up. IAD sends a notification and waits for a pre-defined interval of time before the sending the next discovery message when a link flap event occurs. This helps to avoid sending too many discovery messages.
Device information received through CIP, Profinet, and IPDT or CDP and LLDP is collated and stored in a local database. Each access switch in the network maintains its own IAD database. The local database is dynamically refreshed based on configurable timer values. Information collected about end devices as part of IAD discovery includes:
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Interface Status
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IP-Address
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Mac Address
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Serial Number
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Device PID
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Vendor
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Device Type
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Software version
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Protocol
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Timestamp
The resulting output varies, depending on the network for which an end device has been configured.
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