One of the great protocols inherited from the internet is TCP/IP, which is used by most present-day automation and process control systems. SCADA systems, PLCs and even low level instruments are using TCP/IP and Ethernet to transfer information.

Modbus is one of the few (if not the only) industrial messaging protocols recognised by the internet world, using port number 502. It has one of the largest installed bases world-wide with more than 7.2 million installed nodes. The Modbus TCP/IP profile has recently been accepted by the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) as a Publicly Available Specification (IEC PAS 62030) and is now eligible to become part of future editions of the International Standards IEC 61158 and IEC 61784-2. It enjoys the status of a widely available open standard available to everyone.

Whilst detractors will say the Modbus protocol lacks some of the refinements of the newer offerings, it is one of the most popular standards available in the industrial world today.

This workshop focuses on the main issues of troubleshooting Modbus serial (i.e. Modbus over RS-485) and Modbus/TCP (i.e. Modbus over TCP/IP and Ethernet) installations.