Industrial Automation Data Pipeline With Metadata Context
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial automation systems face challenges in communicating data effectively to external devices due to varying communication protocols and lack of contextual information, leading to network congestion and inefficient data transfer.
Innovation Solution
A common data pipeline is implemented to organize and characterize data with metadata, enabling secure and uniform communication of data across networks, providing contextual information about the origin and hierarchical levels of industrial automation components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If data is transmitted without standardization and contextual information, then network bandwidth is conserved and transmission is simpler, but external devices cannot accurately interpret data and network congestion occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by characterizing data with metadata and organizing it into a standardized format before transmission. The ingress device adds contextual information, hierarchical levels, and component associations to data packets in advance, so that egress devices can immediately interpret and process the data without requiring additional clarification or retransmission, thereby preventing network congestion while maintaining complete information.
2Adaptability or versatility
If varying communication protocols are used by different components, then system adaptability is improved, but data organization and external communication become inconsistent and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs an intermediary approach by introducing a standardized data characterization layer that mediates between diverse internal protocols and external communication requirements. The ingress device acts as a mediator that receives data from components using various protocols, standardizes their format, adds universal metadata, and outputs consistent data structures, thereby maintaining protocol diversity internally while ensuring external consistency.
3Loss of information
If all data is transmitted to external devices, then data availability is maximized, but network congestion increases and bandwidth is wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by characterizing different portions of data with specific metadata tags that indicate their relevance, type, and intended recipients. The standardized format includes hierarchical levels and component associations that allow egress devices to selectively process only the data portions relevant to their function, thereby maintaining broad data accessibility while minimizing unnecessary network traffic and bandwidth consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
A non-transitory computer-readable medium includes instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors of a first electronic device to receive data generated by a plurality of components of an industrial automation system and characterize one or more portions of the data by applying metadata to the one or more portions of the data. The metadata enables a second electronic device receiving the data to determine one or more contexts of the one or more portions of the data. Furthermore, the computer-executable instructions, when executed, cause the one or more processors to rearrange an order of the one or more portions of the data and cause the characterized and rearranged data to be sent to the second electronic device.