Network communications in an industrial automation environment

• US 20070061018A1
• Filed: 09/12/2005
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Callaghan, David, Tutkovics, Scot
• Granted Patent: US 8,156,232 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/05 Programmable logic controllers, e.g. simulating logic interconnections of signals according to ladder diagrams or function charts
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/24159 Several levels of security, passwords
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/32142 Define device, module description using xml format file

Abstract

An industrial automation device comprises a reception component that receives a request for data resident within the industrial automation device. An encoding component communicatively coupled to the reception component that receives a binary bit stream associated with the request and encodes a payload of the bit stream as XML data, the encoding component further communicates the encoded payload by way of an industrial automation protocol. Furthermore, the industrial automation device can include a compression component that compresses the XML data.

Claims

1. An industrial automation device, comprising:

a reception component that receives a request for data resident within the industrial automation device; and

an encoding component communicatively coupled to the reception component that receives a binary bit stream associated with the request and encodes at least a portion of the bit stream as an XML-encoded payload, the encoding component further communicates the encoded payload by way of an industrial automation protocol.

2. The system of claim 1, the industrial automation protocol includes the Common Industrial Protocol.

3. The system of claim 1, the industrial automation protocol is one of DeviceNet, ControlNet, and EtherNet/IP.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an XML object that resides above a stack of the industrial automation protocol and is utilized by the encoding component to encode the payload.

5. The system of claim 4, a communication PDU that communicates with the XML object is XML.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a compression component that compresses the XML data.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising an appendage component that appends metadata to the bit stream.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising a parsing component that parses the metadata.

9. The system of claim 8, the parsing component accesses a library in connection with parsing the metadata.

10. The system of claim 1, the bit stream received upon recognition at the industrial automation device of a public attribute.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a security component that determines whether an initiator of the request is authorized to receive data included within the bit stream.

12. The system of claim 11, the security component utilizes one or more of a user name, password, and biometric indicia to determine whether the initiator of the request is authorized to receive the data.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a user interface generating component that automatically generates a graphical user interface based at least in part upon the encoded payload.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising a customization component that facilitates user-customization of interfaces generated by the user interface generating component.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a requester recognition component that recognizes an initiator of the request for data and encapsulates the data based at least in part upon the recognized initiator.

16. The system of claim 1, the encoding component encodes the binary bit stream in accordance with SOAP.

17. The system of claim 1, the encoding component encodes the binary bit stream in accordance with SOAP with MIME.

18. An industrial automation network, comprising:

a CIP communication medium; and

an industrial automation device that receives XML data over the communication medium.

19. The network of claim 18, the XML data is in the form of an XML document.

20. The network of claim 19, the industrial automation device is a programmable logic controller, the XML document is delivered from the programmable logic controller to a remote device by way of the CIP communication medium.

21. The network of claim 19, the XML document includes at least one of MIME information and a binary attachment.

22. The network of claim 18, the industrial automation device comprises a data store that includes a schema for the XML data that facilitates discoverability of a format and testing of the XML data.

23. The network of claim 18, further comprising CIP interfaces that facilitate exchange of data between the industrial automation device and a client device, the CIP interfaces are wrapped with web services.

24. The network of claim 23, the industrial automation device comprises an updating component that facilitates updating of the industrial automation device by a client that is associated with predefined access privileges.

25. The network of claim 23, further comprising a mapping component that maps binary data types associated with CIP into web-based data types.

26. A method for encoding and communicating XML data over an industrial automation protocol, comprising:

receiving a request for data within an industrial automation device;

encoding at least a portion of a bit stream resultant from the received request as XML data; and

communicating the encoded XML data over an industrial automation protocol.

27. The method of claim 26, the industrial automation protocol is CIP.

28. The method of claim 26, the industrial automation protocol is one of DeviceNet, ControlNet, Ethemet/IP, Hart, ProfiBus, ModBus, and Foundation Fieldbus.

29. The method of claim 26, further comprising wrapping interfaces associated with the industrial automation protocol with web services.

30. The method of claim 26, communicating the encoded XML data over the industrial automation protocol comprises communicating the XML data as a SOAP message with a MIME attachment.

31. The method of claim 26, further comprising determining that an initiator of the request for data is associated with sufficient access privileges.

32. A method for transferring data by way of CIP, comprising:

coupling a CIP communications medium with an industrial automation device; and

communicating XML data associated with the industrial automation device over the CIP communications medium.

33. An industrial automation communication system, comprising:

means for receiving a text stream associated with an object within an industrial automation device;

means for encoding at least a portion of the text stream as an XML-encoded payload; and

means for communicating the XML-encoded payload over an industrial automation network.

34. The system of claim 33, further comprising means for wrapping interfaces associated with the industrial automation network with web services.

35. The system of claim 33, the XML-encoded payload is parsed by a client device.