Concurrent Connection Paths for High-Availability Control Messaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
High availability industrial control systems face challenges in maintaining continuous operation due to delays or switchover times during failures, particularly in critical applications like power plants, where any disruption can be detrimental.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of concurrent connections, which establish multiple redundant paths for data communication at the transport layer, ensuring fault tolerance by eliminating single points of failure and reducing safety connection timeouts through the use of connection path data to manage data transmission between source and target devices via intermediate hops.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If redundant subsystems are implemented to maintain operation during failures, then system availability is improved, but switchover time delays occur when active components fail and backup components need to be activated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-establishing multiple concurrent connection paths before failures occur. When a failure is detected, the system can immediately switch to an alternative pre-configured path without requiring time-consuming reconfiguration or activation of backup components, thus eliminating switchover delays while maintaining high availability
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically manages multiple concurrent connections, allowing real-time switching between active and standby paths based on failure detection. The connection manager continuously monitors path health and can dynamically reroute data transmission through alternative paths without interrupting system operation, resolving the contradiction between reliability and switchover time
2Reliability
If multiple redundant paths are established for data transmission, then fault tolerance is improved, but system complexity increases due to additional components and configuration
Solution Approach 1:
The connection manager performs multiple functions including establishing concurrent connections, monitoring path health, detecting failures, and rerouting data transmission. By consolidating these diverse functions into a single universal manager, the system achieves high fault tolerance through multiple paths without proportionally increasing overall system complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The connection manager acts as an intermediary that simplifies the complexity of managing multiple redundant paths. It abstracts the complex configuration and coordination of concurrent connections, presenting a simplified interface to the rest of the system while handling the complexity of path management internally, thus achieving fault tolerance without proportional complexity increase
Data Source
AI summary
A system of communicating data over a high availability industrial control system is disclosed. The industrial control system includes a first data producer, a second data producer in communicative connection with the first data producer, a first data consumer, and a second data consumer in communicative connection with the first data consumer. The system further includes the first producer communicating the data over multiple connection paths from the first producer to the first consumer and the second consumer through intermediate modules, and the second producer communicating the data over multiple connection paths from the second producer to the first consumer and the second consumer through intermediate modules. Also disclosed is a method of communicating data over the high availability industrial control system.