Simatic TIA Portal

TIA stands for Totally Integrated Automation Portal and consists of an engineering platform specifically designed for automation tasks. The Simatic TIA Portal features a user interface for all the shared services tasks (such as, configuration, communication and diagnostics).

Using the Simatic TIA Portal, the MPI gateway service requires a specific network setup in a Simatic Step 7 project. The MPI gateway configuration is carried out directly by using TIA Portal network tools.

The image below shows the network topology to be implemented. It explains how to reach a device (a PLC in this case) by means of an MPI gateway working with a router.

UBIQUITY Manager and Simatic TIA Portal configuration

  1. Access the Simatic TIA Portal and select the Hardware catalog tab to open the related window.
  2. In the Catalog section, locate and select PC general > PC Station and drag this latter across to the Devices & networks > Network viewwindow for configuration.
  3. Double click on the PC Station component in the Device viewwindow.
  4. Access the Catalog window and select Communications modules > PROFINET/Ethernet > IE general. Select the IE general interface and insert it into the first available slot of the Simatic PC Station image in the Device view window.

Router configuration

  1. Pick a new PC Station from the Catalog section and drag this latter across to the Devices & networks > Network view window for configuration.
  2. Access the Catalog window and select Communications modules > PROFINET/Ethernet > IE general. Select the IE general interface and insert it into the first available slot of the Simatic PC Station image in the Device view window.
  3. In Catalog > Communications modules > PROFIBUS locate the interface and drag it across into the second available slot of the Simatic PC Station image in the Device view window.

MPI network configuration

Notice: Refer to the Installation manual supplied with the device for further information about configuration operations.
Note: Refer to the image shown in this section.
  1. Switch to the Network view and click on the orange square symbol of the PLC component.
  2. Drag the connection to the corresponding router CP interface (including an identical orange square).
  3. Click on the orange square of the UBIQUITY router and assign an MPI node address according to the router port configuration: click on Properties > General > MPI address and enter the MPI address in the Address field.

Ethernet configuration

Notice: Refer to the Installation manual supplied with the device for further information about configuration operations.
Note: Refer to the image shown in this section.
  1. Click on the green square symbol of the PC component.
  2. Drag the network to the corresponding green square of the UBIQUITY router.
  3. Click on the green square symbol of the UBIQUITY router Ethernet interface and assign the IP address of the router LAN port: click on Properties > General > Ethernet address and enter the IP address in the IP address field.
  4. Click on the green square symbol of the PC component for IP address setup. The configured IP address must be the same as the one assigned to the UBIQUITY VPN virtual interface visible through the UBIQUITY Manager during the VPN connection. Click on Properties > General > Ethernet address and enter the IP address in the IP address field.