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Method and apparatus for saving and performing industrial control commands

  • US 4,942,552 A
  • Filed: 11/20/1986
  • Issued: 07/17/1990
  • Est. Priority Date: 11/20/1986
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method for processing communications command messages in an interface controller which forms part of a network station, the interface controller being connected to a communications network interconnecting a plurality of network stations, and in which each command message is a member of a predetermined set of command messages, the method comprising the steps of:

  • (a) receiving a first command message in the interface controller from the communications network, the first command message being a SAVE type remote command message which was originated by one of said plurality of network stations, the first command message including an embedded command and a first ID field comprising a unique identifier corresponding to the embedded command, the embedded command comprising at least a first destination field which identifies one or more of said plurality of network stations and a first operation code which identifies one command message from said predetermined set of command messages, the embedded command being embedded in the format of the first command message;

    (b) storing the embedded command in a remote command table which forms a part of said interface controller at a location in the remote command table corresponding to the unique identifier in the first ID field;

    (c) repeating steps (a) and (b) to receive and store a plurality of embedded commands in the remote command table, each embedded command being stored in the remote command table at a location corresponding to the unique identifier in the ID field;

    (d) receiving a second command message in the interface controller from the communications network, the second command message being a PERFORM type remote command message which was originated from one of said plurality of network stations and the second command message including one or more second ID fields, each second ID field including the unique identifier corresponding to one of said plurality of embedded commands; and

    (e) responding to the second command message by the interface controller by (i) retrieving the embedded command corresponding to the unique identifier in one of the second ID fields from the remote command table, (ii) forming a third command message by including a second destination field in the third command message which comprises the first destination field from the retrieved embedded command and by including a second operation code in the third command message which comprises the first command code from the retrieved embedded command, (iii) transmitting the third command message onto the communications network to one or more target network stations as designated by the second destination field, and (iv) performing steps (i) through (iii) for each embedded command corresponding to the unique identifier in each second ID field.

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