A system produced with the SIMATIC PCS 7 BOX can be expanded at any time with additional SIMATIC PCS 7 hardware and software components. It is just as easy to integrate SIMATIC PCS 7 BOX into existing SIMATIC PCS 7 systems. The connections to the plant bus and terminal bus are usually made via the integrated Ethernet interfaces.

In association with the redundant AS 41xH modular controllers, however, an additional CP 1623 or CP 1628 communication module with appropriate communications software is required for the Industrial Ethernet plant bus (see section Communication, Industrial Ethernet, System connection of PCS 7).

Example of SIMATIC PCS 7 BOX integration in a SIMATIC PCS 7 plant network

The SIMATIC PCS 7 BOX can be configured by using either the engineering software integrated in the system or a central engineering system. OS‑specific configuration changes can be loaded online, i.e. terminated without the OS process mode.