PEER-TO-PEER EXCHANGE OF DATA RESOURCES IN A CONTROL SYSTEM

• US 20100153771A1
• Filed: 01/28/2010
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalan, Michael D., Jasper, Taryl J., Gordon, Kevin G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,688,780 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/4
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31082 NDDS network data delivery service, producers and consumers model
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31124 Interface between communication network and process control, store, exchange data
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31206 Exchange of parameters, data, programs between two station, station and central or host or remote
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31225 System structure, plc's and pc's communicate over lan
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31324 Distributed real time knowledge, database
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31329 Distributed, among several servers, directory service
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33341 Peer to peer, change master if overloaded
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36133 MMI, HMI: man machine interface, communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1074 for supporting data block transmission mechanisms file transfer H04L67/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1076 Resource dissemination mechanisms or network resource keeping policies for optimal resource availability in the overlay network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• 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 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

System(s) and method(s) are provided for peer-to-peer exchange of data in a control system. Decentralized storage and multi-access paths provide complete sets of data without dependence on a specific or pre-defined data source or access paths. Data is characterized as data resources with disparate granularity. The control system includes a plurality of layers that act as logic units communicatively coupled through access network(s). Server(s) resides in a service layer, whereas client(s) associated with respective visualization terminal(s) are part of a visualization layer. Peer-to-peer distribution of data resource(s) can be based on available access network(s) resources and optimization of response time(s) in the control system. When client requests a data resource, all the locations of the data resource and the quickest source to retrieve it are automatically determined. The client stores copy of data resource. Peer-to-peer distribution of data resource(s) can be implemented within the service layer or the visualization layer.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a set of industrial controllers; and

a set of terminals communicatively coupled with the set of industrial controllers, at least one terminal in the set of terminals renders control data generated through at least one controller in the set of controllers, and two or more terminals in the set of terminals exchange a first data resource associated with at least one of the control data or graphic data.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a set of servers communicatively coupled with the set of industrial controllers and the set of terminals, two or more servers in the set of servers exchange a second data resource associated with at least one of the control data or graphic data.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the first data resource and the second data resource comprise at least one of a file, a control screen, a control project, a graphic data object, a control data object, or state information.

4. The system of claim 2, the two or more terminals in the set of terminals exchange the first data resource based on at least one of an update of the first data resource or addition of a terminal to the set of terminals.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the two or more terminals in the set of terminals are selected based on at least one network performance criterion.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein an update of the first data resource includes generation of a control screen or update of a control screen.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein, to select the two or more terminals in the set of terminals, one or more servers in the set of servers optimize a response time for delivery of the first data resource.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of an update of the second data resource or addition of a server to the set of servers triggers exchange of the second data resource amongst the two or more servers in the set of servers.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one server in the set of servers configure at least one controller in the set of controllers and at least one terminal in the set of terminals.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein:

a first server of the two or more servers partitions the second data resource in multiple portions and distributes the multiple portions; and

a second server of the two or more servers receives the multiple portions and recovers the second data resource.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein the set of servers, the set of terminals, and the set of controllers are communicatively coupled through at least one access network.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising an interface that communicatively couples a set of external networks with at least one of the set of servers, the set of terminals, and the set of controller.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein a data management station is disposed on the at least one access network, the data management station comprising:

a storage component that decentralizes data storage by storing data on a plurality of computing devices, wherein the storage component stores the data based on a more frequently accessed criterion, and the data that is more frequently accessed is stored on a computing system that allows retrieval faster than by other systems; and

an access component that facilitates peer-to-peer access of the data from any one or more of the computing devices.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein a most frequently accessed data is stored on most of the plurality of computing devices that are available for the data storage.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein a computing device is available when storage of the data thereto does not impact a process the computing device is monitoring and/or controlling.

16. A method, comprising:

employing at least one processor to execute code instructions retained in a memory, the code instructions when executed by the at least one processor carry out the following acts;

receiving an indication a node has been deployed in a network;

based on at least one criterion, selecting a set of peer nodes to supply the node with one or more resources, wherein the one or more resources have a granularity dictated by at least one of data format layout or data storage layout; and

delivering the one or more resources to the set of peer node.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

when a control screen in a visualization node is configured or updated, selecting a set of peer visualization nodes to which distribute at least one of the control screen of a resource associated therewith; and

conveying at least one of the control screen or the resource associated therewith to the set of destination nodes.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

when control data in a visualization node is analyzed, selecting a set of peer visualization nodes to which distribute the control data; and

distributing the control data to the set of peer visualization nodes.

19. The method of claim 16, the selecting comprising:

determining network latency amongst one or more pair of nodes in a set nodes;

accessing a metric that quantifies demand of a resource in a control system associated with the set of nodes; and

identifying a group of source nodes to supply the resource based at least on a satisfactory value of a response function dictated in part by at least one of the network latency or the metric.

20. The method of claim 19, the accessing act comprising:

retrieving or receiving the metric from a node that is part of the network.

21. The method of claim 19, the accessing act comprising:

extracting historical data on at least one of delivery of the resource, reception of the resource, or requests for the resource; and

assigning a value to the metric based at least in part on the historical data.

22. The method of claim 18, the selecting act comprising:

requesting identification of a group of nodes suitable to receive the control screen; and

in response to the request, receiving a list of at least one peer node to which deliver the control screen.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

selecting one or more data resources for peer-to-peer backup on multiple nodes based on data criteria, wherein the data criteria includes a frequency at which the data is accessed;

checking for availability of the multiple nodes based on availability criteria;

selecting a subset of the multiple nodes on which to store the one or more data resources; and

storing the one or more data resources on the subset of the multiple nodes.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

prioritizing multiple types of data resources based on importance and backing up a most important data resource on the subset of access nodes.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

checking for a failed node of one of the multiple nodes;

requesting a copy of the one or more data resources during a restore process;

checking for availability of a subset of the multiple nodes during the restore process;

retrieving the copy of the one or more data resources to the failed node; and

operating the failed node according to the copy of the one or more data resources.

26. A device, comprising:

a display component that renders control data in accordance with one or more data resources; and

at least one processor that executes code instructions retained in memory to implement a client component that exchanges at least one data resource in the one or more data resources with one or more peer devices in a network.

27. The device of claim 26, wherein the client component delivers or receives the at least one data resource in the one or more data resources in response to an update thereof.

28. The device of claim 27, wherein the client component delivers or receives the at least one data resource in the one or more data resources in response to addition of a peer device to the network.

29. The device of claim 27, wherein the client component supplies metadata that controls implementation of peer-to-peer exchange of the at least one data resource.

30. The device of claim 27, wherein the at least one processor executes instructions retained in memory to implement an assessment component that selects the one or more devices in the network based in part on a network performance criterion.

31. The device of claim 27, wherein the one or more data resources comprise at least one of a file, a control screen, a control project, a graphic data object, a control data object, or state information.