System and methodology providing namespace and protocol management in an industrial controller environment

• US 7,606,890 B1
• Filed: 06/04/2002
• Issued: 10/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: McEldowney, Douglas Francis, Baier, John Joseph, Wylie, Douglas R., Callaghan, David Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Winder; Patrice
• Assistant Examiner(s): Duong; Thomas
• Application Number:
  US10/162,314
• Time in Patent Office: 2,695 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/223, 709/217, 709/219, 709/245
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31104 Remote configuration of parameters of controlled devices
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31196 SOAP, describes available services and how to call them remotely
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31457 Factory remote control, monitoring through internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0286 for search or classification or discovery of web services providing management functionalities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/30 Managing network names, e.g. use of aliases or nicknames name-to-address mapping H04L61/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and methodology facilitating remote namespace management in an industrial control environment. An industrial control system is provided that includes an industrial controller to communicate with a network such as the Internet. Namespace information relating to network locations of associated control devices are accumulated by the control system and/or a server interacting with the control system. The accumulated namespace data can then be employed to manage automated activities such as determining a network topology or mapping. Accumulated topology information can be utilized to determine a status of the collective entity contributing to the network and facilitating remote management of the entity. Such status can be employed to determine current device information in order to launch a plurality of other automated procedures to located devices in the topology.

Claims

1. An industrial control system, comprising:

an aggregator that collects network addresses and namespace information from a subset of industrial controllers and launches an automated activity in accordance with the collected network addresses and namespace information, the automated activity includes determination of status of the industrial control system; and

a component associated with the subset of industrial controllers that reports a network address of at least one of the subset of industrial controllers to the aggregator, determines a geographic location of the at least one of the subset of industrial controllers, and generates a universal resource locator (URL) for the at least one of the subset of industrial controllers based at least in part on a unique base URL stored on the at least one of the subset of industrial controllers, the URL further comprises information related to the geographic location.

2. The system of claim 1, the component is at least one of a responder or an address generator associated with the at least one of the subset of industrial controllers.

3. The system of claim 1, the component is a discovery component operative within a networked industrial control system.

4. The system of claim 3, the discovery component is at least one of a domain name service, a namespace server, a web site, a controller, a network device, a or a Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) component.

5. The system of claim 1, the network addresses are at least one of a Universal Resource Locator (URL), Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), an Ethernet address, or a TCP/IP address.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a request mode component that supports at least one of a polling mode, a broadcast mode, or a request/reply mode to retrieve the network addresses from the subset of industrial controllers.

7. The system of claim 6, the broadcast mode further comprising a multicast mode to cause the subset of industrial controllers to report the network addresses.

8. The system of claim 7, the polling mode transmits network request to a predetermined range of network addresses to retrieve the network addresses from the subset of industrial controllers.

9. The system of claim 7, the polling mode transmits network request to a predetermined list of supervisory network devices to retrieve the network addresses from the subset of industrial controllers.

10. The system of claim 9, the supervisory network devices including at least one of a gateway, a Local Area Network (LAN) server, or a router.

11. The system of claim 2, the responder reports to at least one of a discovery component or the aggregator in order to report the network addresses or URL.

12. The system of claim 11, the responder employs a reporting schema to report the network address, the reporting schema including at least one of a node type, a report type, node data, diagnostic data, or network address information.

13. The system of claim 12, the node type includes at least one of a PLC, a network card, or an I/O module.

14. The system of claim 12, the report type includes at least one of an address to report or a network address request.

15. The system of claim 12, the node data includes at least one of revision information or status information of at least one of the subset of industrial controllers.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a request schema to retrieve the network addresses, the request schema specifying at least one of a request type, a single network address, a range of network addresses, a polling address, a broadcast address or a multicast address.

17. The system of claim 1, at least one of the aggregator or the component configured as a web service.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising at least one of a Web Service Description Language (WSDL) interface or a Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) to interact with the web service.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communication component to communicate the network addresses, the communication component including at least one communications stack to process at least one communications protocol.

20. The system of claim 19, the at least one protocol including at least one of a TCP, TCP/IP, EthernetIP, FOUNDATION Fieldbus HSE, Modbus, or IDA protocols.

21. The system of claim 1, the automated activity further comprises determining current revisions and performing upgrades, the upgrades including at least one of a firmware upgrade, a documentation upgrade, a file upgrade or a data upgrade.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising an upgrade schema to indicate upgrade.

23. The system of claim 2, the address generator at least one of generates a unique address, generates a temporary address, or performs a registration procedure with the aggregation component.

24. The system of claim 23, the address generator reports network information to a discovery component.

25. A method to aggregate namespace data in an industrial control system, comprising:

at least one of a polling, broadcasting or multicasting for network addresses of industrial controllers, the network addresses specifying a namespace and geographic location of a respective industrial controller;

reporting the network addresses of the industrial controllers, the reporting including at least one of;

responding to the at least one of polling, broadcasting, and multicasting for network addresses;

reporting at least one of a permanent address and a temporary address;

reporting a location-based address;

or performing a registration procedure to receive a different network address; and

automatically launching activities to the industrial controllers based on the network address.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising transmitting at least one of a request or a reply schema to communicate the network addresses.

27. A system to aggregate namespace data in an industrial control system, comprising:

means for at least one polling, broadcasting or multicasting for URL addresses of industrial controllers, the network addresses specifying a namespace and geographic location of a respective industrial controller;

means for reporting the URL addresses of the industrial controllers, the reporting including at least one of;

means for responding to the polling, broadcasting, and multicasting of URL addresses;

means for reporting at least one of a permanent address and a temporary address;

means for determining a location-based address;

or

means for performing a registration procedure to receive a different URL address; and

means for automatically launching activities to the industrial controllers based on the network address.