
21-1
21.1 Introduction
Industrial communication systems take over more and more critical tasks. e criticality of the tasks can be
of various types. One of the most common requirements is the achievement of a certain level of availability,
in order to reduce times when a system is not productive. erefore, a certain level of availability is economi-
cally necessary. As soon as such systems take over tasks that are critical for the safety of people or the envi-
ronment, availability alone is not enough, but it is also necessary to achieve a certain level of safety integrity.
e following are the typical safety functions in the eld of industria ...