Multi-protocol gateway with control in a process control system

• US 10,459,413 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2017
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Systems USA, Inc. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Schneider Electric Systems USA, Inc. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Tegnell, Johan I., Gale, Alan A., Nery, Thomas A., Mendu, Krishna R., Hu, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ogg, David Earl
• Application Number:
  US15/794,746
• Publication Number:
  US 20180120796A1
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0421 Multiprocessor system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24175 Redundant communication channel, if one fails use the other
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24186 Redundant processors are synchronised
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25204 Translate between different communication protocols
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33235 Redundant communication channels, processors and signal processing hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4282 on a serial bus, e.g. I2C bus, SPI bus on daisy chain buses G06F13/4247

Abstract

Controlling and communicating with separate sets of industrial process control devices via separate data protocols simultaneously with a single processing device that utilizes redundancy and task-splitting to increase availability. An exemplary system includes a device integrator processor configured to receive and transmit electronic data via a plurality of protocols simultaneously. In one form, the device integrator processor includes a primary module that primarily controls communications and synchronizes itself with a shadow module of the processor. In another form, the processor includes multiple cores that each control a set of devices. Moreover, the cores implement a redundancy scheme.

Claims

1. A system for enabling control of devices in a process control system, comprising:

at least one first interface configured to support communication of first electronic data among the devices via at least one electronic data communications network according to a first electronic data communication protocol;

at least one second interface configured to support communication of second electronic data among the devices via the at least one electronic data communications network according to a second electronic data communication protocol; and

a device integrator processor, said processor comprising a primary module and a shadow module, the primary module and the shadow module each configured to couple to the electronic data communications network via the first and second interfaces, the primary processor module including a primary master core assigned to communicate with a first set of devices and a primary remote core assigned to communicate with a second set of devices, the shadow processor module including a shadow master core and a shadow remote core, each master core of the primary and shadow processor modules being related via a redundancy scheme and each remote core of the primary and shadow processor modules being related via a redundancy scheme that is different than the redundancy scheme between the primary master core and the shadow master core, the redundancy scheme between the primary master core and the shadow master core comprising tightly coupling the primary master core and the shadow master core to provide fault tolerant control to the devices, and the primary module configured to receive and transmit the first and second electronic data on the electronic data communications network according to the first and second electronic data communication protocols simultaneously to control communications on the electronic data communication network during operation of the system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the primary module and the shadow module is further configured to synchronize the other module therewith by communicating the received first and second electronic data to the other module.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first electronic data communication protocol is at least one of a MODBUS protocol, an Ethernet protocol, and a serial protocol and wherein the second electronic data communication protocol is at least one of a MODBUS protocol, an Ethernet protocol, and a serial protocol.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of:

the first electronic data communication protocol comprises a plurality of instances of an Ethernet protocol, wherein the primary module is configured to receive and transmit the first electronic data on the electronic data communications network according to the plurality of instances of the Ethernet protocol via the first interface; and

the second electronic data communication protocol comprises the plurality of instances of the Ethernet protocol, wherein the primary module is configured to receive and transmit the second electronic data on the electronic data communications network according to the plurality of instances of the Ethernet protocol via the second interface.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the shadow module is configured to dynamically begin controlling communications on the electronic data communications network by utilizing the data received from the primary module when the primary module becomes unavailable during operation of the system.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary module is configured to control communications on the electronic data communications network among the first subset of the devices by receiving and transmitting the first electronic data according to the first electronic data communication protocol via the first interface, and wherein the shadow module is configured to simultaneously control communications on the electronic data communications network among the second subset of the devices by receiving and transmitting the second electronic data according to the second electronic data communication protocol via the second interface.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary master core is configured to execute one or more control blocks for controlling operation of the devices during operation of the system, and wherein the primary remote core is configured to control the communications on the electronic data communications network during operation of the system.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the primary remote core is configured to dynamically begin controlling operation of the devices when the primary master core becomes unavailable during operation of the system.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary remote core and the shadow remote core implement at least one of a hot-standby redundancy scheme and a single side scan redundancy scheme to provide fault tolerant control of communications on the electronic data communications network.

10. A method for enabling control of devices in a process control system, said method comprising:

coupling a primary module of a device integrator processor to an electronic data communications network via at least one first interface and at least one second interface, the first and second interfaces configured to simultaneously support communication of first electronic data among the devices via the electronic data communications network according to a first electronic data communication protocol and second electronic data among the devices via the electronic data communications network according to a second electronic data communication protocol, the primary processor module including a primary master core assigned to communicate with a first set of devices and a primary remote core assigned to communicate with a second set of devices;

coupling a shadow module of the processor to the electronic data communications network via the first and second interfaces, the shadow processor module including a shadow master core and a shadow remote core, each master core of the primary and shadow processor modules being related via a redundancy scheme and each remote core of the primary and shadow processor modules being related via a redundancy scheme that is different than the redundancy scheme between the primary master core and the shadow master core, the redundancy scheme between the primary master core and the shadow master core comprising tightly coupling the primary master core and the shadow master core to provide fault tolerant control to the devices; and

controlling communications on the electronic data communications network by the primary module receiving and transmitting the first and second electronic data on the electronic data communications network.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising synchronizing the primary module and the shadow module by at least one of the primary module and the shadow module communicating the received first and second electronic data to the other module.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising controlling, by the shadow module utilizing the data received from the primary module, communications on the electronic data communications network dynamically in response to the primary module becoming unavailable.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the primary module includes a primary master core and a primary remote core, the method further comprising:

pausing, by the primary remote core, scan updates of the first and second electronic data received from the devices via the electronic data communications network to a device input table of a shared memory device;

reading, by the primary master core, the stored electronic data from the device input table; and

installing, by the primary master core, the electronic data read from the device input table into control blocks executing thereon.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

executing, by the primary master core, an outscan of output data representative of an updated operation state of the devices;

writing, by the primary master core, the output data to a shared memory device;

reading, by the primary remote core, the output data from the shared memory device; and

transmitting, by the primary remote core, the read output data to the devices via the electronic data communications network,

wherein said transmitting causes the devices to operate at the updated operation state thereof represented by the transmitted output data.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

obtaining, by a maintenance process executing on the primary master core in response to connection of a new device on the electronic data communications network, device data for the new device from a device host;

instructing, by the maintenance process executing on the primary master core, the primary remote core to install the new device by a driver control task;

writing, by the maintenance process executing on the primary master core, the device data to a shared device configuration table in a memory device; and

reading, by the driver control task executing on the primary remote core, the device data from the shared device configuration table to install the new device.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

instructing, by the primary master core, the primary remote core to read a device status of at least one of the devices;

reading, by the primary remote core in response to said instructing, the device status of the device;

writing, by the primary remote core in response to said reading, the device status to a shared operational data table in a memory device;

reading, by the primary master core in response to said writing, the device status from the shared operational data table in the memory device;

executing, by the primary master core in response to said reading, one or more control blocks to generate output data values representative of an updated operation state of the devices;

writing, by the primary master core in response to said executing, the output data values to the shared operational data table in the memory device;

reading, by the primary remote core, the output data values from the shared operational data table in the memory device; and

distributing, by the primary remote core in response to said reading, the output data values to the at least one device.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein said controlling communications on the electronic data communications network comprises the primary remote core receiving and transmitting the first and second electronic data on the electronic data communications network, said method further comprising executing, by the primary master core, one or more control blocks for controlling operation of the devices.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising executing, by the primary remote core, the one or more control blocks for controlling operation of the devices dynamically in response to the primary master core becoming unavailable.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising further comprising implementing as the redundancy scheme between the primary remote core and the shadow remote core at least one of a hot-standby redundancy scheme and a single side scan redundancy scheme between the primary remote core and the shadow remote core.