Submodules

A PROFINET device describes its data by modules, which in turn contain submodules. Each module has at least one submodule.

The EL6631-0010 can contain a maximum of 238 submodules. However, you should try not to exhaust the number of submodules, but keep it as small as possible.

For example, if you want to transfer 100 bytes, you can achieve this by using a module with 100 modules of 1 byte each or by using one module with 100 bytes. Here it is to be considered:

With PROFINET, each module has a provider and a consumer status (IOPS and IOCS). With 100 x 1 byte, the IOPS and IOCS in our example transport not only 100 byte but 300 byte. With 1 x 100 bytes, 102 bytes are then transferred.

When using the EL6631-0010 you have no disadvantage if you keep the number of modules small, or no advantage if you use 100 individual modules, because the EL6631-0010 is a hardware that only forwards the data to the EtherCAT master.