| Nurtakin Guliyeva Shukurova Simulation-based Comparative Study of PROFIBUS and PROFINET Topologies |
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| Abstract. The study investigates the impact of various network topologies used in the PROFIBUS and PROFINET communication protocols, which are widely used in industrial automation sys-tems, on performance and system resilience. The study aims to determine the possibilities for optimizing the topology selection in Industrial Control Systems (ICS) networks in terms of connection reliability and continuity. In the initial phase of the study, the bus, star, tree, and ring topologies were modeled in the GNS3 simulation environment and tested under scenarios such as cable breaks, network load, and changes in traffic intensity. The results showed that in the line topology, a 100% link loss was observed during a cable break, whereas in the ring topology, link continuity was maintained thanks to the alternative transmission path. In the next phase, to address the identified weaknesses, the implementation of redundant structures, network segmentation, optimization of the switch architecture, and the creation of alternative transmission paths have been proposed at the theoretical and simulation lev-els. It should be noted that the optimization measures have not been fully implemented in a real industrial environment; they have only been evaluated within the framework of model-ing and analysis. Based on the simulation results, the application of redundant and distributed structures has the potential to increase link continuity during failures and can enhance the overall reliability of the system. At the same time, the use of segmentation and alternative transmis-sion paths can reduce network latency and minimize packet loss. The obtained results pro-vide a methodological contribution to the scientific justification of topology selection during the design of industrial networks and to ensuring the continuity of production processes. Furthermore, the practical implementation and experimental verification of the proposed optimization mechanisms on real hardware is considered appropriate for future research. Although evaluated solely through GNS3 simulations, which may not fully capture phys-ical-layer effects in real ICS environments, the proposed optimizations show promise; future research should validate these on actual PROFIBUS/PROFINET hardware with PLCs. |
| Keywords: Industrial Control Systems network, PROFIBUS, PROFINET, GNS3, topology optimization |
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| DOI: https://doi.org/10.54381/itta2026.4.10 |