Connecting Module for Connecting at Least One Sensor, Actuator, or Effector to a Service-Oriented-Architecture Network

• US 20120290749A1
• Filed: 12/18/2010
• Published: 11/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales Defence Deutschland Gmbh (Thales SA)
• Original Assignee: Thales Defence Deutschland Gmbh (Thales SA)
• Inventors: Prasse, Christoph, Moench, Egon, Klotz, Rainer, Michel, Jeremy, Schmidt, Wolfgang
• Granted Patent: US 8,751,707 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/63
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

The invention relates to a connecting module (3) for connecting at least one sensor (2), effector, or actuator to a service-oriented-architecture, called SOA, network (4), wherein a functionality of the at least one sensor (2) is mapped as a service in the SOA network (4). In order to enable the integration of sensors (2) that are not SOA-capable in themselves into an SOA environment, the connecting module (3) has at least one first interface (3.2) for connecting the at least one sensor (2), effector, or actuator, at least one second interface (3.4) for connecting the SOA network (4), and a computing device (7) for executing a computer program, wherein a part (8.1) of the computer program to be executed is specified by default and another part (8.2) of the computer program is freely programmable by a manufacturer of the at least one sensor (2) in order to adapt firmware on the at least one sensor (2) to the SOA environment. The invention further relates to a module unit (22) of the connecting module (3) that prepares the service mapped in the SOA environment for transmission over a military radio network (35) having low bandwidth while maintaining the SOA functionality.

Claims

1. A connecting module for connecting at least one appliance to a network, wherein the connecting module has at least one first interface for connecting the at least one appliance and at least one second interface for connecting the network, and the connecting module has a computation appliance for executing a computer program, characterized in that the network is a service-oriented architecture, termed SOA, network, wherein a functionality of the at least one appliance is mapped as a service in the SOA network, and one portion of the computer program is prescribed and another portion of the computer program is freely programmable by a manufacturer of the at least one appliance for customization of a piece of firmware which is present on the at least one appliance to the SOA network.

2. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the appliance to be connected to the SOA network comprises a sensor, effector or actuator.

3. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the first interface comprises an RS232 interface, a USB interface, a LAN connection, an Ethernet connection or an optical connection.

4. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the second interface comprises a bus connection, particularly a CAN, TTCAN, LIN, MOST, ByteFlight, D2B Optical or FlexRay bus connection.

5. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the second interface is in the form of a radio interface.

6. The connecting module as claimed in claim 4, characterized in that the radio interface is designed for data transmission between the connecting module and the SOA network with a short delay time, particularly in realtime.

7. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the computation appliance designed to execute the computer program is a microprocessor.

8. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the computation appliance designed to execute the computer program is a digital signal processor, termed DSP.

9. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the computation appliance controls the first and/or the second interface.

10. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the computation appliance does not actuate the first and/or the second interface and in that the connecting module has a further computation appliance, particularly a digital signal processor, termed DSP, which controls the first and/or the second interface.

11. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the connecting module has a watchdog timer.

12. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the customization of the firmware which is present on the at least one appliance to the SOA network involves the automatic production and implementation of a heartbeat operation.

13. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the firmware which is present on the at least one appliance is customized to the SOA network by the appliance manufacturer without any knowledge about SOA.

14. The connecting module as claimed in claim 13, characterized in that customization of the firmware which is present on the at least one appliance to the SOA network by the appliance manufacturer does not require the latter to have any knowledge about a statefulness of the appliances and a statelessness of services in the SOA environment of the SOA network and the allowance for the services.

15. The connecting module as claimed in claim 14, characterized in that the connecting module stores and effects coordinated execution of SOA calls from the SOA network.

16. The connecting module as claimed in claim 13, characterized in that the firmware which is present on the at least one appliance is customized to the SOA network by the appliance manufacturer using knowledge by the appliance manufacturer about interfaces of the appliance to be encapsulated and about a programming language for an encapsulation framework for the firmware, which encapsulation framework is generated as part of the customization.

17. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that SOA encapsulation of a functionality of the appliance is implemented such that the SOA encapsulation processes priorities for SOA calls from the SOA network such that the functionalities of the appliance which correspond to the SOA calls can be executed in an order which corresponds to the priorities.

18. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the connecting module has a sandbox which is separate from the other components of the connecting module and which stores the customizations of the appliances to the SOA network.

19. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the customizations of the appliances to the SOA network are implemented by service descriptions which are stored in a service registry of the connecting module.

20. The connecting module as claimed in claim 19, characterized in that the service registry delivers a suitable WSDL (Web-Service Definition Language) file for various SOA networks.

22. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the connecting module has means in order to convert errors which occur in the customization of the appliance to the SOA environment into error messages, as a result of which the SOA network can process said error messages.

23. The connecting module as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the connecting module comprises a first module unit, which maps the connected appliance as a service in the SOA network, and a second module unit, which conditions the service mapped by the first module unit for transmission via a radio network with low bandwidth while retaining the SOA functionality.

24. The connecting module as claimed in claim 23, characterized in that the second module unit, which allows the consumption of SOA customizations via the radio network, meets demands from the military world with regard to a security concept, encryption of the data, distributed service registries, which are able to be synchronized between the connecting modules upon request, and/or control of a flow of data with reduced bandwidth via the radio network.

25. The connecting module as claimed in claim 23, characterized in that the second module unit, which allows the consumption of SOA customizations via the radio network, has a radio adapter for connecting conventional radios.

21. A connecting module, characterized in that a plurality of versions of the customization of an appliance can be operated in parallel, as a result of which SOA applications which are based on old customizations can be supported.