Digital Twin Detection of Industrial Network Service Requirements
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current industrial communication networks face challenges in automating the configuration of communication services, particularly in ensuring deterministic communication and meeting specific application requirements, which often leads to unreliable operations due to unprecise or incomplete descriptions of requirements.
Innovation Solution
The proposed solution involves deploying an application to a digital twin, which represents the industrial communication system, to collect and analyze communication traffic data. This allows for the detection and classification of application endpoints and their communication characteristics, enabling the adjustment of these characteristics until pre-defined application performance quality limits are reached, thereby deriving the necessary network parameters for configuring the industrial communication network.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual configuration methods are used to capture communication requirements, then application-specific determinism and reliability requirements can be addressed, but the complexity and error-proneness of the configuration process increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-configuration by automatically detecting application communication requirements and translating them into network configuration parameters. The configuration process serves itself by using the application's own communication patterns to determine the necessary network settings, eliminating the need for manual intervention while maintaining high reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual mechanical configuration processes with automated digital detection and translation mechanisms. Instead of manual analysis and configuration steps, the system uses automated detection of communication traffic patterns and algorithmic translation into network parameters, reducing human error and process complexity.
2Reliability
If parameter settings are made with high requirements to ensure reliability, then communication determinism is improved, but system resources are over-reserved
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically determines network parameters based on actual application communication requirements rather than using fixed high-value settings. By detecting real communication patterns and translating them into precise parameter values, the system optimizes resource allocation to match actual needs, avoiding over-reservation while maintaining necessary determinism.
3Productivity
If automated configuration is implemented, then configuration time and manual work are reduced, but capturing precise communication requirements becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses feedback from actual communication traffic patterns to accurately detect and understand application requirements. By monitoring and analyzing real communication behavior between application endpoints, the automated system gains precise insight into requirements without manual intervention, maintaining detection accuracy while enabling automation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a digital representation or copy of the application's communication behavior by monitoring traffic patterns. This copy allows the system to analyze and understand requirements automatically without needing to manually capture or interpret the original communication needs, bridging the gap between automation and precision.
Data Source
AI summary
Various embodiments of the teachings herein include a method for configuring an industrial communication network. The method may include: deploying an application to a digital twin set up to represent an industrial communication system, devices connected to the network, processes, and physical interactions; running the application on the digital twin; collecting data of the application's communication traffic; classifying the application's end points and communication characteristics based on the collected communication traffic; changing the communication characteristics of the communication links until reaching limits of performance quality; deriving network parameters required by the application; and configuring the industrial communication network based on the determined network parameters.