DIVERSE NETWORK RELATIVE ADDRESSING RESOLUTION

• US 20100121799A1
• Filed: 11/07/2008
• Published: 05/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Rockwell Automation, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalan, Michael D., Govindaraj, Subbian, Staron, Raymond J., Hall, Kenwood H., D'Mura, Paul R., Rischar, Charles Martin, Jasper, Taryl J., Kretschmann, Robert J., Vasko, David A., Liberman, Eugene
• Granted Patent: US 8,606,928 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/4541 Directories for service discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

A requesting entity can submit a query to an industrial control configuration to determine a location for a module. A distributed directory can be employed to discover an absolute location of the module, which can be provided to the requesting entity. This discovery can occur in real-time such that an answer can be given with a relatively high degree of certainty. In addition to providing the absolute address in the answer, a path on how to reach the module can be provided. The path can be optimized in order to allow quicker response time and to manage system resources.

Claims

1. A system capable of implementation upon an industrial control configuration, comprising:

a discovery component that ascertains an absolute location of a unit in the industrial control configuration through use of a directory; and

a transmission component that emits the absolute location to an entity.

2. The system of claim 1, the directory is a distributed directory.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising an exchange component that converts a relative address of the unit to the absolute location, the ascertainment of the discovery component is made by accessing the converted absolute location.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a travel component that determines a path between the entity and the unit, the transmission component emits the path to the entity.

5. The system of claim 4, the travel component uses a topographical map of at least a portion of the industrial control configuration to determine the path.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an analysis component that evaluates a request for the absolute location of the unit; and

an information component that identifies metadata for the transmission component to emit based upon a result of the evaluation, the metadata relates to the entity, the unit, a path between the entity and unit, the absolute location, a relative location of the unit, or a combination thereof and the transmission component emits the metadata.

7. The system of claim 6, the evaluation determines a security level of the request, metadata identification is restricted based upon the determined security level.

8. A method capable of implementation upon an industrial control configuration, comprising:

identifying a request to a directory for a location of a module of the industrial control configuration; and

responding to the request with an address of the module and a path to reach the module.

9. The method of claim 8, the directory is a distributed directory.

10. The method of claim 8, the directory includes executable code that determines the path.

11. The method of claim 10, the executable code determines an improved path, the improved path is shortest in access time between a requester and the module, has lowest impact upon the industrial control configuration, is the most secure, or a combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising gathering metadata after the request is identified pertaining to the module, the gathered metadata is used in determining the path.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining the address upon identifying the request.

14. A system capable of implementation upon an industrial control configuration, comprising:

means for evaluating a query toward a directory of the industrial control configuration; and

means for resolving the query based upon a result of the evaluation.

15. The system of claim 14, the directory is a distributed directory.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising means for determining a security level of an entity that produces the query, the means for resolving functions upon determining that the entity has an appropriate security level.

17. The system of claim 14, the means for resolving accesses an answer to the query in a cache.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

means for counting a number of times the query is made;

means for determining if the number is sufficient to warrant placement of an answer to the query in a cache.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising:

means for placing the answer in the cache; and

means for enabling the answer to be updated.

20. A computer program embodied upon a computer-readable medium comprising:

program code for determining a response to a query upon a module for location information of the module in real-time; and

program code for transmitting an address of the module and a path to the module as the response.