ODVA 2026 Industry Conference

EtherNet/IP devices are becoming more complex, and the associated device configuration in modern automation systems must balance rich, device-specific behavior with cloud-scale deployment, interoperability, and predictable host integration. The paper will describe an approach that combines stateless business logic, schema-versioned APIs to address this challenge. In this model, device vendor-supplied applications remain stateless with interactions where the data models are provided through asynchronous events, while controller configuration applications own project state, sequencing, and consistency boundaries. Operational workflows are exchanged as CloudEvents over MQTT using versioned schemas, with explicit separation between transport responsibilities and profile logic. Enabling moving communications to the Edge, CIP direct-to-device operations use correlated request/response tokens and repeatable transport contracts, enabling deterministic execution for one-shot and polling scenarios without introducing cross-request state leakage in services.

In parallel, the proposed solution preserves compatibility with established artifacts and practices, including static descriptors such as EDS and EDDL-derived structures, while introducing dynamic registration and extensible JSON schema contracts for host/device coordination. The resulting architecture is expected to improve interoperability across hosts and device families, reduce integration risk for device software developers, and provide a scalable baseline for more complex configuration, online diagnostics, and multi-step device workflows to be defined by device vendors. This paper provides an overview of the architecture decisions, implementation implications, and ecosystem benefits for vendors, host developers, and end users.

Author
Michael Miller, Rockwell Automation
Paul Brooks, Senior Manager, Open Architecture Management, Rockwell Automation