INDUSTRIAL PROTOCOL AND GATEWAY

• US 20070186011A1
• Filed: 09/28/2006
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Batke, Brian A., Baczkowski, Gary W., Moldovansky, Anatoly
• Application Number:
  US11/536,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20070186011A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0226 Mapping or translating multiple network management protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/046 comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor

Abstract

A gateway component for an industrial automation system is provided. This includes an agent component to process network interactions for a network device. An industrial protocol object facilitates interactions between an industrial automation component and the network device, where a mapping component translates between industrial control protocols associated with the industrial protocol object and network protocols associated with the agent component.

Claims

1. A gateway component for an industrial automation system, comprising:

an agent component to process network interactions for a network device;

an industrial protocol object to facilitate interactions between an industrial automation component and the network device; and

a mapping component to translate between industrial control protocols associated with the industrial protocol object and network protocols associated with the agent component.

2. The gateway component of claim 1, further comprising a module to read inputs or write outputs associated with the industrial control protocols.

3. The gateway component of claim 1, the module is a programmable controller, a communications module, or an intelligent module.

4. The gateway component of claim 1, the network protocols are associated with an Ethernet protocol or a TCP/IP protocol.

5. The gateway component of claim 4, the industrial control protocols are associated with a Control and Information Protocol (CIP).

6. The gateway component of claim 4, the network protocols are associated with a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).

7. The gateway component of claim 1, the agent component is associated with Management Information Base (MIB) data object.

8. The gateway component of claim 7, the agent component communicates with at least one external SNMP manager.

9. The gateway component of claim 7, further comprising a component to translate an SNMP request to an industrial protocol construct.

10. The gateway component of claim 7, further comprising an abstract syntax notation to identify the MIB variable.

11. The gateway component of claim 1, the mapping component receives a CIP message, constructs an SNMP message, and routes the SNMP message to the agent component.

12. The gateway component of claim 1, the mapping component employs an application programming interface to communicate with an SNMP layer.

13. The gateway component of claim 1, the mapping component decodes data from an encapsulation message where at least one protocol is encapsulated within at least one other protocol.

14. The gateway component of claim 13, the encapsulation message is associated with an SNMP Protocol Data Unit (PDU).

15. The gateway component of claim 14, further comprising a component to unwrap the encapsulation message and route the message to an SNMP agent.

16. The gateway component of claim 14, further comprising a CIP object that is employed as part of an SNMP request.

17. The gateway component of claim 1, the industrial control protocol is employed to enable or disable one or more ports or configuration items associated with the network device.

18. The gateway component of claim 17, the industrial control protocol and the network protocol are employed to provide diagnostics for the network switch.

19. The gateway component of claim 18, the diagnostics provide status from at least one alarm condition.

20. The gateway component of claim 19, the alarm condition is associated with at least one of a bandwidth alarm, a scaling factor, a time factor, and an allowed traffic difference.

21. The gateway component of claim 20, the scaling factor is associated with a scaled bandwidth utilization component.

22. The gateway component of claim 18, the diagnostics include one or more transmit counters, one or more receive counters, an IGMP report, and a MAC address report.

23. A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereon to facilitate network translations in an industrial automation environment, comprising:

a first data field to specify a network protocol associated with at least one public network;

a second data field to specify an industrial controller protocol; and

a third data field that specifies a message for the industrial controller protocol, the message identifies variables associated with the network protocols.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 23, the network protocol is an Ethernet protocol.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 24, the Ethernet protocol is associated with an SNMP protocol.

26. The computer readable medium of claim 23, the message is associated with at least one of an SNMP service or an SNMP object identifier.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 23, the message is associated with an encapsulation protocol.

28. The computer readable medium of claim 27, the encapsulation protocol is associated with an SNMP Protocol Data Unit.

29. A method to translate data for an industrial control system, comprising:

providing at least one controller object to process an industrial protocol;

providing an agent object to process a network protocol; and

mapping at least one variable from the industrial protocol to the network protocol.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising mapping at least one variable from the network protocol to the industrial protocol.

31. The method of claim 29, further comprising providing network status via the industrial protocol.

32. The method of claim 29, further comprising providing network diagnostics via the industrial protocol.

33. A network device for an industrial control system, comprising:

means for generating at least one network protocol;

means for transporting at least one industrial protocol in accordance with the network protocol; and

means for mapping data between the industrial protocol and the network protocol.