Data transmission system and method

• US 20020087742A1
• Filed: 12/27/2001
• Published: 07/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens AG
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Talanis, Thomas, Gehring, Hubert, Plaum, Reiner
• Granted Patent: US 7,051,335 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/330
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

A system and a method for transmitting data between a local data processing system and a remote data processing system through an asynchronous transmission channel. To ensure synchronization between a local and a remote data processing device, it is proposed that when a first program of the local data processing device sends a call, such as a RPC (Remote Procedure Call) to a second program of the remote data processing device, at least one predefinable parameter of the data to be transmitted is stored in the local data processing device. When the remote data processing device sends a response to the local data processing device, the predefinable parameter is provided to identify and/or synchronize the response in the first program.

Claims

1. A system for transmitting data between a local data processing device and a remote data processing device through an asynchronous transmission channel for use with distributed objects in the field of automation technology, said system comprising:

a memory assigned to the local data processing device for storing at least one predefinable parameter to identify a call sent by a first program of the local data processing device to a second program of the remote data processing device to solicit data from the second program of the remote data processing device;

means for integrating the predefinable parameter into response data sent by the remote data processing device to the local data processing device;

means for identifying the predefinable parameter in the response data; and

means for synchronizing the response data such that by identifying the predefinable parameter in the response data, the response data of the second program of the remote data processing device is integrated into the first program of the local data processing device.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

means for comparing the stored predefinable parameter stored in said memory of the local data processing device with the predefinable parameter contained in the response data.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first program of the local data processing device is a user program and the second program of the remote data processing device is a server program.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system is used in the field of automation technology to operate and monitor programmable controllers.

5. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the program controllers are selected from the group comprising, stored program controllers, numerical controls and numeric drives.

6. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predefinable parameter is formed at least from parts of the IDL (Interface Definition Language) transmitted by the first program to the second program.

7. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the system is used in connection with client applications in embedded systems.

8. A system as claimed in claim 7, wherein, the embedded systems are DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) systems.

9. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second data processing device stores the predefined parameters received from the first data processing device on a stack and restores the predefined parameters before a callback is sent to the first data processing device.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a user callback is constructed identically to an original call.

11. A method for transmitting data between a local data processing device and a remote data processing device through an asynchronous transmission channel for use with distributed objects in the field of automation technology, said method comprising:

integrating a predefinable parameter into a call of a first program of the local data processing device sent to a second program of the remote data processing device to solicit data from the second program, wherein the predefinable parameter identifies the call and is stored in the first data processing device;

integrating the predefinable parameter in the response data of the remote data processing device sent to the local data processing device in response to the call;

identifying the response data transmitted by the remote data processing device to the local data processing device in the first data processing device by observing the predefinable parameter;

integrating the response data by identifying the predefinable parameter into the first program of the local data processing device.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising:

comparing the parameter contained in the response data with the stored parameter.

13. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the predefinable parameter is formed at least from parts of the IDL (Interface Definition Language) transmitted by the first program to the second program.

14. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the method is used in connection with client applications in embedded systems.

15. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the embedded systems are DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) systems.

16. A method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the second data processing device stores the parameters received from the first data processing device on a stack and restores the parameters before a callback is sent to the first data processing device.

17. A method as claimed claim 11, wherein a user callback is constructed identically to an original call.

19. An automation device as claimed in claim 18, further comprising:

means for comparing the parameter stored in memory of the local data processing device with the predefinable parameter contained in the response data.

20. An automation device as claimed in claim 18, wherein the first program of the local data processing device is a user program and the second program of the remote data processing device is a server program.

21. An automation device as claimed in claim 18, wherein the automation device is used in the field of automation technology to operate and monitor stored program controllers, numerical controls or numerical drives.

22. An automation device as claimed in claim 18, wherein the predefinable parameter is formed at least from parts of the IDL (Interface Definition Language) transmitted by the first program to the second program.

23. An automation device as claimed in claim 18, wherein the automation device is used in connection with client applications in embedded systems.

24. An automation device as claimed in claim 23, wherein the embedded systems are DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) systems.

18. An automation device comprising:

a local data processing device for transmitting data through an asynchronous transmission channel for use with distributed objects in the field of automation technology;

a memory for storing at least one predefinable parameter to identify a call sent by a first program of the local data processing device to a second program of a remote data processing device to solicit data from the second program of the remote data processing device;

means for integrating the predefinable parameter in response data sent by the remote data processing device to the local data processing device;

means for identifying the predefinable parameter into the response data; and

means for synchronizing the response data such that by identifying the predefinable parameter in the response data, the response data of the second program of the remote data processing device is integrated into the first program of the local data processing device.