361 results about "Physical entity" patented technology

A method for controlling traffic between different entities on a network in which packets of received data are inspected, and if encapsulated, are decapsulated layer by layer and, after each layer is decapsulated, the packet is inspected to determine if the packet is to be acted upon or discarded.Apparatus for controlling traffic between different entities on a network in accordance with a predetermined policy, the policy being applied to network traffic being passed between logical zones, wherein each logical zone can be simultaneously associated with one or more types of network entity and in particular t at least one of said source and destination zones includes both physical entities and logical entities,

Graphic elements and graphic displays are provided for use in a process environment to display information to one or more users about the process environment, such as the current state of device within a process plant. The graphic elements and display may be associated with various logical and physical elements within the process plant during configuration of the process plant, and may be configured and downloaded to the hardware within the process plant along with other configuration items, such as control routines. In particular, the graphic elements and graphic displays may be created and stored in a library, and may then be configured by being associated with various logical or physical entities within the plant. During the configuration process, the graphic elements and graphic displays may be associated with areas, equipment, process modules, control routines or control strategies of the plant as defined elsewhere in the plant configuration, or may be associated with interfaces or display devices, to define the hardware on which the graphic displays will execute during runtime, as well as to define the process entities to which these displays will be bound for display purposes. Still further, each of the graphic displays may be defined with a role or a functional use, such as an operator view, a maintenance view, etc., and these roles may be used to defined the proper access and use of the graphic displays within the runtime environment.

A method for controlling traffic between different entities on a network in which packets of received data are inspected, and if encapsulated, are decapsulated layer by layer and, after each layer is decapsulated, the packet is inspected to determine if the packet is to be acted upon or discarded. Apparatus for controlling traffic between different entities on a network in accordance with a predetermined policy, the policy being applied to network traffic being passed between logical zones, wherein each logical zone can be simultaneously associated with one or more types of network entity and in particular t at least one of said source and destination zones includes both physical entities and logical entities,

A process control configuration method in a user interface of a computer system for developing control strategies of a process plant, where the user interface defines a screen area to display a plurality of independent panes therein, includes generating a first edit pane, including displaying a graphical representation of a first set of logical or physical entities for carrying out respective process control operations in the process plant; generating a second edit pane, including displaying a graphical representation of a second set of logical or physical entities for carrying out respective process control operations in the process plant, wherein each in the first set and the second set of logical or physical entities includes at least one input and at least one output, and wherein each of the first edit pane and the second edit pane defines an independent user interface screen within the screen area; receiving a first selection of an output of a first entity in the first set of logical or physical entities; receiving a second selection of an input to a second entity in the first second of logical or physical entities; and automatically generating respective visual indicators in each of the first edit pane and the second edit pane in response to receiving the first selection and the second selection, wherein the visual indicators depict respective endpoints of a connection between the first entity and the second entity.

A data construct called a semcard is a semantic (meaning-based) software object including semantic meta-tags and meta-data that describes a target object or thing. A target object can be any type of digital or physical entity or identifier, or it can be tacit knowledge, such as ideas, concepts, processes or other data existing in a user's mind, provided that the user represents this knowledge in the semcard. A semcard embodies information about its own structure—rules, history, state, policies and goals regarding automation, display, access permissions, sharing and other operations of the semcard and any optional target object. It can also represent a semantic link between two semcards, or a semantically typed link or a standard Web hyperlink between a semcard and its referent target. A collection of semcards represents a knowledge network; single semcards, and knowledge networks, can be browsed, shared, searched, disseminated, manipulated, displayed, organized, and stored.

A virtual machine placement framework is described to enable a data center operator to develop a placement scheme to satisfy its particular constraints while simultaneously optimizing resource utilization. To generate a placement solution, the virtual machine placement problem is first characterized as a “bin packing” problem. The framework provides simple interface tools and processing modules, and a pluggable architecture for receiving placement algorithms. To generate a solution, an administrator creates an XML representation that abstracts physical entities (e.g., data center, subnet, rack, physical server, and the like) into a hierarchical tree of bins. The administrator also defines a set of “rules” that govern (direct) the placement of the virtual machines by placing constraints on the placement scheme. Using the hierarchical tree and the rules, the framework is executed to generate a placement as a solution to a bin packing problem, preferably on a layer-by-layer basis.