Controller Application Module Coordinator

Abstract

The present invention is entitled "Controller Application Module Coordinator". The present invention discloses a network control system (200) within an industrial process facility (IPF), the network control system comprising controller platforms coupled to each other via a dedicated path redundant network (170) to provide a controller pool, each controller platform having at least one controller (211, 212, controller N, 218, 219, 261, 262) including computing hardware (171) and memory (172). An application module (AM) pool (231, 232) comprises a plurality of AMs, wherein the controller platform is coupled to an input / output device (145) coupled to a field device (150) via an input / output mesh network (140), and the field device is coupled to a processing device (160) in the IPF. A control application module coordinator (CAMO) (240) coupled to the plant-level network is used to dynamically deploy AMs to the controller platform, wherein the CAMO receives resource consumption attribute data about the controller platform, and the controller platform includes a pool of available storage in the memory and processing resources available for computer hardware. Based on resource consumption attributes, multiple AMs are at least partially automatically deployed to the controller platform.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The disclosed embodiments relate to a controller for a network control system. Background Art

[0002] In the deployment of conventional network control systems, the entity that hosts the control functions and is responsible for the related control calculations (such as proportional integral derivative (PID) control calculations) is usually an embedded computer device / platform, which is usually described as a process "controller". Each controller includes computing hardware, which usually includes at least one processor or other computing device with associated memory, such as an embedded controller. The so-called "controller platform" herein includes a controller or a pair of controllers in the case of redundant controllers, wherein the controller platform hosts control software "application modules" in its memory, such as the commercially available EXPERION control execution environment (CEE) sold by Honeywell International Inc., hereinafter collectively referred to as application modules (AM). Each "controller platform" communicates at a higher level with at least one server through a plant-level network, and usually communicates at a lower level with sensors and actuators that control part of the processing equipment in the plant through an I / O network, then with I / O devices, and then with sensors and actuators that control part of the processing equipment in the plant.

[0003] In order to ensure a high level of control system availability, controllers in a network control system are usually deployed in a scheme that provides hardware redundancy, specifically two controller platforms deployed to do the work of one, or more specifically a "primary" controller that actively performs control tasks, and a "backup" controller that is on standby and ready to assume control tasks if the primary controller fails. Therefore, traditional high-availability control system redundancy uses a primary controller and a backup controller for each controller platform, which in the simplest non-redundant control system case consists of a single controller.

[0004] When a primary controller in a redundant controller pair controller platform fails, non-redundant operation will continue using the standby controller until the primary controller is repaired or replaced to restore controller redundancy in the controller platform. Conventionally, AMs are deployed in a 1:1 ratio with controller platforms. This means that each controller platform (whether redundant or not) always hosts only one AM.

[0005] Figure 1A conventional network control system 100 is shown in which the ratio of AMs to controller platforms is 1:1, the network control system showing three controller platforms, controller platforms 110 and 120 having redundant controllers, each controller platform having controller pairs 111, 112 and 121, 122 respectively, and one controller 130 being a single (non-redundant) controller. Each controller includes computing hardware 171 and associated memory 172. Dedicated (fixed) AMs are stored (reside) in one of the corresponding memories 172 of each of the controller platforms, shown as AM 141 in the memory 172 of controller 111 providing an AM, and AM 142 similar to AM 141 providing an AM for the primary controller 121 and a backup AM for the redundant controller 122, and AM 143 providing an AM for controller 130 (which may be an AM for the primary controller only, or an AM for the primary controller and a backup AM for the redundant controller).

[0006] The controller platforms 110, 120, 130 are each shown coupled via an input / output (I / O) mesh network 140 for controlling a portion of a processing device 160, which is shown coupled via field I / O devices 145, including sensors and actuators. A plant-level network 170 (e.g., an Ethernet network) between the controller platform and one or more servers 180 and at least one human-machine interface (HMI) 185 is also shown.

[0007] When the redundant controllers shown as redundant controller 110 and redundant controller 120 are Figure 1 When configured as shown, the primary and backup controllers can change roles when the primary controller is disabled, with the backup controller becoming the primary controller, so that a dedicated AM of the controller platform can support different controllers. Figure 1 AM 141 and AM 142 shown) always only support fixed pairs of controllers ( Figure 1 A primary controller 111 and a secondary controller 112 are shown). Summary of the invention

[0008] This Summary is provided to introduce a brief selection of disclosed concepts in a simplified form, which are further described below in the Detailed Description including the drawings. This Summary is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0009] The disclosed embodiments recognize that AM and controller platforms are deployed in a dedicated (or fixed) 1:1 ratio (such as Figure 1Conventional network control systems (such as the conventional network control system 100 shown in FIG. 1 ) lack flexibility and have other significant limitations in deploying AMs. The disclosed controller application module orchestrator (CAMO) provides flexibility in the digital relationship between devices or equipment (here, controller platforms) and AMs as software resources dynamically deployed by CAMO, such as in a ratio of 1:1, 1:N, N:N, where N>1.

[0010] The present disclosure recognizes through newer network control system designs, modern information technology (IT) concepts (such as virtualization and containerization), and specific design adaptations to those technologies related to the deployment of available control technologies that it is possible to deploy AMs to controller platforms in a more flexible manner than is conventionally always fixed 1:1 with the controller platform. Specifically, using the disclosed CAMO, AMs can be used as an AM pool that is controlled by CAMO so that they can be automatically deployed to controller platforms in a non-1:1 manner. The main AM deployment flexibility provides network control system advantages, including allowing multiple AMs to run on one controller platform so that users do not always need to add hardware when they expand their control systems. In addition, given that AMs are typically required to run on redundant platforms, the disclosed AM deployment provides flexibility regarding which controller platforms the AMs run on. This can be a significant advantage relative to the expected life of a continuously operating plant, where additional AMs may need to be added to a set of retired / running AMs on a set of fixed controller platforms, and in order to host one or more new AMs, the existing set of AMs needs to be rebalanced to better distribute the load on the available processing and memory resources of the existing controller platforms.

[0011] The disclosed aspects include a network control system within an industrial process facility (IPF), the network control system including multiple controller platforms coupled to each other via a dedicated path redundant network to provide a controller pool, each controller platform having at least one controller including computing hardware and memory. A pool of application modules (AMs) includes multiple AMs, wherein the controller platform is coupled to I / O devices coupled to field devices via an I / O grid network, and these field devices are coupled to processing devices in the IPF. A control application module coordinator (CAMO) coupled to the plant-level network is used to dynamically deploy AMs to the controller platforms, wherein the CAMO receives resource consumption attribute data about the controller platform, and the controller platform includes available storage in memory and a pool of processing resources available for computing hardware. Based on the resource consumption attributes, the multiple AMs are automatically deployed to the controller platform at least in part. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] Figure 1A conventional network control system in which AMs and controller platforms are configured in a dedicated 1:1 manner is depicted, showing 3 controller platforms and 3 (equal number) AMs.

[0013] Figure 2 Depicted is an exemplary networked control system implementing the disclosed CAMO according to an exemplary embodiment, wherein AMs are flexibly deployed by CAMO (including in a manner other than 1:1 with controller platforms), showing multiple controller platforms with a smaller number of AMs. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] The disclosed embodiments are described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to represent similar or equivalent elements. The drawings are not drawn to scale, and they are provided only to illustrate certain disclosed aspects. Several disclosed aspects are described below with reference to exemplary applications for illustration. It should be understood that many specific details, relationships, and methods are set forth to provide a complete understanding of the disclosed embodiments.

[0015] As used herein, an industrial process facility includes field devices 150 and processing equipment that operate industrial processes involving tangible materials to which the disclosed embodiments are applicable. For example, oil and gas, chemical, beverage, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, petroleum processing, electrical, and water. An industrial process facility is distinct from a data processing system that only performs data manipulation.

[0016] An enabling aspect of the disclosed embodiments is an I / O mesh network. An I / O mesh is an I / O network configuration where instead of binding the I / O to one specific process controller via physical dedicated links, the I / O mesh is partitioned at the channel level to all controllers in a group of controllers so that any one of the process controllers in the group of controllers can have a flexible workload distribution to be able to operate on inputs and outputs in the I / O mesh network. The I / O mesh network implements a flexible redundancy scheme. In short, an I / O mesh network is a shared I / O network where multiple controllers and multiple I / O modules and devices reside on the same network so that I / O resources can be shared between process controllers.

[0017] Figure 2An exemplary network control system 200 is depicted, the exemplary network control system including a first pooled controller platform 210 and a second pooled controller platform 260, wherein the network control system 200 includes a disclosed CAMO 240 for flexibly deploying AMs (including dynamic deployment) shown as AM pools 231 and AM pools 232 available for respective controller platform pools 210 and 260, respectively. The controllers in the respective pooled controller platforms 210 and 260 are shown coupled to each other via a first dedicated path redundant network 225 and a second dedicated path redundant network 235, each redundant network having sufficient speed for time synchronization, thereby providing a controller pool shown as a first pooled controller platform 210 and a second pooled controller platform 260. Although shown as having two pooled controller platforms 210, 260, the disclosed arrangement can be applied to a single pooled controller platform or three or more pooled controller platforms. The redundant networks 225, 235 provide communication paths for controller pool coordination and data traffic synchronization. For example, in order to keep the primary AM and backup AM in the controller platform synchronized, the primary AM needs to send status data to the backup AM during its operation so that the backup AM accurately "knows" the status of the process and can replace the primary AM at any time when needed.

[0018] Controller platform pool 210 is shown as including controllers including controller 211, controller 212, and controller N (shown as controller 213), which may all be purpose-built embedded hardware platforms, and optionally controller 218 and controller 219, which are shown as including commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computing platforms. Similarly, controller platform pool 260 includes controller 261, controller 262, and controller N (shown as controller 263). The controllers each include computing hardware 171 with associated memory 172.

[0019] The AM pools in the network control system 200 are shown as a first AM pool 231 associated with the first pooled controller platform 210 and a second AM pool 232 associated with the second pooled controller platform 260. A plant-level network, such as an Ethernet network, shown as 170 couples the controllers in the respective controller pools 210 and 260, the CAMO 240, and the AM pools 231 and 232 together.

[0020] CAMO 240 is configured to dynamically deploy the AMs in each of the AM pools 231, 232 to the computing platforms in their corresponding controller pools 210, 260. CAMO 240 typically receives inputs to monitor the plant topology and computing hardware and memory resources, and in the event of a controller failure, CAMO 240 automatically or through optional user interaction can perform functions such as restoring a new standby AM on a pooled controller platform, restoring a redundant standby controller on a pooled controller platform. CAMO 240 can provide other responsibilities, such as providing information to the user when deploying a new AM to allow the user to decide where the AM runs by default, or allowing CAMO 240 to make that decision.

[0021] CAMO 240 may be stored in any memory in network control system 200, including any memory having a Figure 2 240a and 240b and a distributed arrangement of portions of CAMO within controller pools 210, 260 and portions outside the controller pools shown as CAMO 240. Alternatively, CAMO may be stored at the server level with server 180 or even in the cloud.

[0022] AMs 231 and 232 typically include a software "container" for a control software application. The control software application of the AM may be internally developed software (such as Honeywell EXPERION CEE or other advanced applications), or may be a 3rd party application. The AM may be inherently redundancy aware / capable (as is the case with EXPERION CEE), or may be a conventional application that is not designed for redundancy.

[0023] The network control system 200 includes an I / O mesh network 240 connected between the controller pools and the I / O devices 145. The IO mesh network 240 is needed because the job of the controller is to process input data from inputs (including sensor inputs) and make intelligent decisions about how to change outputs coupled to actuators in order to manage the process itself, where the controller communicates directly with the I / O devices 145. Although shown as serving two controller pools 210 and 260, the I / O mesh network 240 can serve one controller pool or three or more controller pools.

[0024] Thus, each controller pool 210 and 260 is a flexible controller resource pool that can be dynamically managed by CAMO 240 and is used to host a set of AMs as shown. Figure 2 AM 231 and 232 are therefore already decoupled from the controller platform via CAMO 240 (with Figure 1, which is the opposite of what is fixed in the controller pool 210, 260), so that each controller platform can assume the hosting of one or more AMs. For redundant AMs, the AM can host a primary AM and a backup AM, or host multiple AMs with different roles, provided that the active AM and its backup AM are not on the same controller platform. When a controller in the controller pool 210, 260 fails (usually due to a hardware component failure), any primary AM running inside it will switch to its backup AM running on another controller in the controller pool, which resumes control after the failure (although it is non-redundant). Any backup AM running on the failed controller will stop running, causing its primary AM to run elsewhere on the controller pool, with operation unaffected but temporarily non-redundant. A new backup AM can be automatically proposed by CAMO 240, where the new backup AM restores the availability of the entire network control system 200 relatively quickly.

[0025] The public CAMO 240 for network control systems thus deploys AMs to controller platforms in a more flexible manner that can be deployed based on user preferences, including automatic, manual, or a mix of automatic and manual - based on the nature of the AM or fault scenario, thereby mapping AMs in one or more AM pools to controllers in a controller pool in one of the following exemplary non-1:1 manners.

[0026] 1. A controller platform hosts M AMs simultaneously, where M is an integer greater than 1.

[0027] 2. 1 controller platform hosts M AMs, where M is an integer greater than 1, and some or all of the AMs are redundant and backed up by N controller platforms, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0028] 3. L controller platforms, where L is an integer greater than one, each controller platform hosting M AMs, where M is an integer greater than or equal to one, backed up by N controller platforms, where N is an integer greater than or equal to one.

[0029] 4. The dynamic changes described above allow AMs to be "moved" and redeployed between controller platforms. If the computing load changes for various reasons, CAMO 240 can move AMs. For example, if additional AMs are added, or more load is added to existing AMs, AM resources can be rebalanced by moving AMs between controller platforms. Another example is the failure of a computing platform, which is then recovered by adding or repairing nodes, and rebalancing so that each node has an equal scale of loss.

[0030] 5. A variation of the above, wherein the corresponding AM is deployed as a redundant or non-redundant entity, and its redundant role on any given controller platform at any given time can be either the primary instance or the standby instance.

[0031] 6. AM from 3rd parties, delivering a wide range of possible capabilities.

[0032] Where possible, AM is provided, deployed and moved / remapped within processes and while running process control, such as controlling industrial processes.

[0033] CAMO 240 as described above typically includes a software engine whose primary responsibility is to manage the deployment and mapping of AMs on the controller platform. Non-limiting examples of deployment and mapping on the network are listed above, including the following features:

[0034] The AMs are intelligently and automatically deployed to the controller platforms based on resource availability through load balancing (specifically, by monitoring the pool of available memory and processing resources on one or more processors available on each controller platform. As described above, if the user prefers that CAMO 240 not perform such operations automatically, CAMO 240 may provide the option of manual AM to controller platform assignment by the user, where the AM deployment may be based on the recommendations provided by CAMO 240.

[0035] The disclosed aspects include intelligent deployment of temporary and backup AMs in the event of failure of an AM in a redundant controller pair. Calculation of AM / system availability and providing recommendations for increasing availability, such as deploying additional controller platforms. CAMO 240 accomplishes its primary functions by generally all simultaneously considering the following attributes:

[0036] Resource consumption of the controller platform on the network, such as memory, CPU, communications, and network bandwidth. The physical location of the controller platform on the network relative to the plant infrastructure (including attributes such as control units, buildings, floors, rooms, and power supplies). The physical I / O connectivity of the controller platform on the IO mesh network 140 (different controller platforms can be connected to different combinations of I / O networks). The security profile of the controller platform, including physical security. Deployment topology, such as integration with other systems (such as safety systems). Control application associations, such as before / after relationships. Execution cycles and adaptability to AM, peer references, and geographic location near the physical process controlled by the networked control system.

[0037] In addition, CAMO 240 may provide an enabler as described below that ensures that network communications from the controller platform to the AM continue seamlessly in an uninterrupted manner while in process, and that the AM can "move" across controller platforms (including between controller pools) when needed. For example, regardless of the protocol or direction of communication traffic, network communications typically depend on an addressing scheme that ensures that messages reach their intended destination and continue to do so during any normal or abnormal plant event, including failure of a controller platform, causing any primary AM within a controller platform to switch to its backup AM on a different controller platform. Different addressing schemes and designs may be implemented in current and possible future years (both internal and external) of products. For example: a fixed relative floating address scheme, mapped to an AM on a controller platform or internal thereto. CAMO 240 may manage the mapping of addressable nodes to AMs across heterogeneous years of equipment, thereby ensuring seamless and uninterrupted communication in the following exemplary use cases listed below:

[0038] Dynamic and automatic reallocation of existing computing resources to physical networks for failures of device user interactions (such as configuration and deployment of new AMs), such as deployment / removal of controller platforms in response to changes in the I / O mesh network 140 connectivity profile for maintenance operations of controller platforms. The disclosed embodiments can be applied to a wide variety of applications, generally including any type of distributed control system (DCS) (including supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems).

[0039] Although various disclosed embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they are presented by way of example only and not limitation. Many changes may be made to the subject matter disclosed herein in accordance with the present disclosure without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. In addition, although specific features may be disclosed with respect to only one of several embodiments, such features may be combined with one or more other features of other embodiments as may be desired or advantageous for any given or particular application.

Claims

1. A network control method within an industrial processing facility IPF, comprising: A network control system (200) in the industrial process facility (IPF) is provided, the network control system comprising a plant-level network (170) coupling at least one server (180) to a plurality of controller platforms, the plurality of controller platforms are all coupled to each other via at least one dedicated path redundant network (225, 235) to provide a controller pool (210, 260), each controller platform having at least one controller (211, 212, 218, 219, 261, 262) including computing hardware (171) and a memory (172), and at least one AM pool (231, 232) including a plurality of application modules AM, wherein the plurality of controller platforms are coupled to an I / O device (145) coupled to a field device (150) via an input / output (I / O) grid network (140), the field device being coupled to a processing device (160) at a field level of the industrial process facility (IPF), the method comprising: taking into account resource consumption attributes of respective ones of the plurality of controller platforms, the controller platforms comprising at least available storage in the memory and a pool of available processing resources of the computing hardware; and Based on the resource consumption attributes, at least partially automatically deploying an AM of the plurality of AMs to the plurality of controller platforms, wherein at least one of the plurality of AMs is configured to move across the plurality of controller platforms, including between the controller pools.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising monitoring in real time available storage in the memory and available processing resources from the computing hardware, wherein the at least partially automatically deploying comprises real-time deployment. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the at least partially automatically determining consists of an exclusively automatically determining. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of controller platforms comprises a redundant controller pair. 5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the AM pool comprises a plurality of AMs, the plurality of AMs comprises a redundant AM, and the redundant AM comprises a primary AM and a backup AM.

6. A network control system (200) in an industrial processing facility (IPF), the network control system comprising: A plant-level network (170) coupling at least one server (180) to a plurality of controller platforms, the plurality of controller platforms being coupled to each other via a dedicated path redundant network (225, 235) for providing a controller pool (210, 260), each controller platform having at least one controller (211, 212, 218, 219, 261, 262) including computing hardware (171) and memory (172), and at least one AM pool (231, 232) including a plurality of application modules AM, wherein the plurality of controller platforms are coupled to an input / output (I / O) device (145) coupled to a field device (150) via an I / O mesh network (140), the field device being coupled to a processing device (160) at a field level of the IPF; a control application module coordinator CAMO (240) coupled to the plant-level network for dynamically deploying the plurality of AMs to the controller platform, the CAMO receiving resource consumption attribute data about the controller platform, the controller platform comprising at least a pool of available storage in the memory and available processing resources of the computing hardware, and Based on the resource consumption attributes, at least partially automatically deploying an AM of the plurality of AMs to the plurality of controller platforms, wherein at least one of the plurality of AMs is configured to move across the plurality of controller platforms, including between the controller pools.

7. The network control system of claim 6, wherein the CAMO further enables real-time monitoring of available storage in the memory and available processing resources from the computing hardware, wherein the at least partially automatically deploying comprises real-time deployment.

8. The network control system of claim 6, wherein the at least partially automatic determination consists of an exclusively automatic determination.

9. The network control system of claim 6, wherein at least one of the plurality of controller platforms comprises a redundant controller pair.

10. The network control system according to claim 6, wherein the AM pool comprises a plurality of AMs, the plurality of AMs comprises a redundant AM, and the redundant AM comprises a primary AM and a backup AM.

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