Redundant industrial communication system and method for its operation

摘要

The system has a set of communication devices (11-14) redundantly linked to an industrial communication network (1). A set of network infrastructure devices (21-23) is associated with the industrial communication network. The industrial communication network includes buffer memory units (217, 311) having maximum buffer size such that an oldest message element is erased from the buffer memory units when the maximum buffer size is exceeded, and the oldest message element is selected as a next message element to be sent wirelessly until the maximum buffer size is exceeded. The network infrastructure device is selected from a group consisting of a switch, hub, router or a bridge. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) a network node for a redundantly operable industrial communication system (2) a method for performing redundant operation of an industrial communication system.