Device name 

The device name is the name of the PROFINET IO device.

You can select the name freely. The selected name must, however, conform with the IEC 61158-6-10 standard. To achieve this, the following rules must be adhered to:

· A name may be a maximum of 240 characters (letters, digits, hyphen or period).

· A device name must consist of at least one character.

· In a device name, a character string between two periods forms a label. Such a label could, for example, be ".machine-A.".

· A label can be a maximum of 63 characters long.

· The minimum length of a label is one character, for example ".A.".

· There are one or more labels in a device name.

· In a label, only the letters a to z (no umlauts ?, ? etc.), the digits 0 to 9 and the hyphen are permitted.

· No special characters are permitted in a label, for example brackets, underscores, slashes or spaces. 

· Umlauts (e.g. "?" or "ü") must not be used. 

· The hyphen ("-") is the only permitted special character. 

· However, a label must not start with a hyphen.

· A label must also not end with a hyphen. 

· A device name must not have the form n.n.n.n (n = 0...999). 

· A device name must not start with the character string "port-xyz-" (x,y,z = 0...9). 

· A device name must not start or end with a period. This means, for example, that the character string ".Machine-A." is not permitted as a device name (only as part of a device name, as a label).

Device names are assigned to PROFINET IO device when the device is being set up and placed in operation for the first time ("commissioned"). The default name is the one from the GSD file (see "Short Designation"). 

If several devices of the same type are arranged on the same PROFINET IO system, then STEP 7 automatically adds sequential number to the name from the GSD file. In this case, the second device has the extension "-1", the third one has the extension "-2", etc. 

STEP 7 provides the option of automatically extending the device name with the name of the IO system. To do this, go to the property sheet for the IO system and select the "Use name in the device/controller" check box. In this case, the device name of the IO controller will have the following format: 

[Name from the GSD file].[Name of the IO system]