Virtual Placeholder Configuration for Distributed Input/Output Modules

• US 20120290759A1
• Filed: 05/14/2012
• Published: 11/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric USA, Inc. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Schneider Electric Industries SAS (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Blair, Richard A., Lee, Kenneth S., Dhayagude, Nitin, Van de Steeg, Kerry, Schaffner, Heinz, Brune, Torsten Joachim, Kreß, Sascha
• Granted Patent: US 8,966,028 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/301
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/054 Input/output
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/1101 Remote I-O
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/1126 Conversion table between original defined module address and actual physical address
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/1141 Modify manually, using keyboard configuration of module
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/1143 Base configuration contains all I-O modules, deselect not present modules
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/15002 Image table in I-O expansion module
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A modular distributed I/O system for an industrial automation network that allows one or more modules of an island to be omitted without requiring reconfiguration of the system by maintaining a consistent I/O image representation of the distributed I/O network for various physical distributed I/O configurations, and managing reconfiguration changes using Virtual Placeholder objects.

Claims

1. A system for configuring a process image in an automation network, the system comprising:

a physical island having a network interface module, the physical island further including a plurality of input/output (I/O) modules,

wherein configuration software run by the network interface module maintains a consistent process image for various distributed I/O configurations having one or more I/O modules of the plurality of I/O modules physically removed from the system using virtual placeholders, and

wherein said configuration software generates a translation table that provides a correlation between node addresses of the physical island and node addresses of a logical island model of said physical island, wherein an I/O module of the plurality of I/O modules in a physical slot X having node ID X is presented outside the physical island as if that I/O module were located in slot Y.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said configuration software provides for an indication of one or more I/O modules of the plurality of I/O modules selected by a user to be physically not present in the physical island to be displayed with particular indicia indicating an absence, such that the one or more I/O modules indicated as being physically not present are distinguishable from other I/O modules indicated as being physically present.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said configuration software provides a user with functionality to create the logical island model of said plurality of I/O modules comprising the physical island, such that the logical island model can be tested against particular design rules and application requirements.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said translation table is downloaded and stored in said network interface module as part of configuration data.

2. A method of configuring a process image of a physical island, the method comprising:

providing the physical island having a network interface module and a plurality of ports, each of the plurality of ports capable of connection to one of a plurality of input/output (I/O) modules;

connecting at least one of the plurality of I/O modules to at least one of the plurality of ports; and

,

creating the process image of the physical island that indicates whether each of the plurality of I/O modules is physically present and not present using virtual placeholders,

wherein the creating the process image further includes generating a translation table that provides a correlation between node addresses of the physical island and node addresses of a logical island model of said physical island, wherein an I/O module of the plurality of I/O modules in a physical slot X having node ID X appears in the logical island model as if that I/O module were located in slot Y and wherein an I/O configuration of the physical island maintains a consistent process image for various physical distributed I/O configurations having one or more I/O modules of the plurality of I/O modules physically removed.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the creating the process image includes:

(a) creating the logical island model using the virtual placeholders, and

(b) determining the logical node addresses for each of the plurality of I/O modules.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

providing for an indication of one or more I/O modules of the plurality of I/O modules selected by a user to be physically not present in the physical island to be displayed with particular indicia indicating an absence, such that the one or more I/O modules indicated as being physically not present are distinguishable from other I/O modules indicated as being physically present.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the creating the process image includes determining the logical node addresses for each of the plurality of I/O modules.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

providing a physical island having a network interface module and a plurality of ports, each of the plurality of ports capable of connection to one of a plurality of input/output (I/O) modules;

connecting at least one of the plurality of I/O modules to at least one of the plurality of ports; and

,

creating a process image of the physical island that indicates whether each of the plurality of I/O modules is physically present and not present using virtual placeholders,

wherein the creating the process image further includes generating a translation table that provides a correlation between node addresses of the physical island and node addresses of a logical island model of said physical island, wherein an I/O module of the plurality of I/O modules in a physical slot X having node ID X appears in the logical island model as if that I/O module were located in slot Y and wherein an I/O configuration of the physical island maintains a consistent process image for various physical distributed I/O configurations having one or more I/O modules of the plurality of I/O modules physically removed.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the translation table is downloaded to the network interface module.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the processor further performs:

routing error messages to a predetermined logical address based on the virtual placeholders.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the creating the process image includes determining the logical node addresses for each of the plurality of I/O modules.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the processor further performs:

providing for an indication of one or more I/O modules of the plurality of I/O modules selected by a user to be physically not present in the physical island to be displayed with particular indicia indicating an absence, such that the one or more I/O modules indicated as being physically not present are distinguishable from other I/O modules indicated as being physically present.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the creating the process image includes:

(a) creating the logical island model using the virtual placeholders, and

(b) determining the logical node addresses for each of the plurality of I/O modules.