Patent ID: 8670460

Claim:
A method for optimizing transmission of data between a control device and a plurality of N field devices that are connected to one another via an IP-based communications network, wherein the data transmission is controlled using a Profinet protocol, the method comprising: a) generating a single first Profinet data frame according to the Profinet protocol for transmitting data to the plurality of N field devices; b) subdividing the first Profinet data frame into N data fields that are associated with the N field devices in a predetermined manner; c) writing into each data field of the first Profinet data frame data for the field device which is associated with the respective data field, insofar as data is present for this field device; d) transmitting the subdivided first Profinet data frame to each of the N field devices, wherein for transmission the subdivided first Profinet data frame is embedded into an Ethernet packet; and e) upon reception of the Ethernet packet, into which the subdivided first Profinet data frame is embedded, reading out the data from each data field by the field device which is associated with the respective data field.