Gateway Emulating Industrial Devices for Protocol Translation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods struggle to interconnect industrial field-bus systems based on different communication protocols and information models, even when they use the same Ethernet TSN link layer, requiring modifications to programming and affecting memory mapping and time synchronization.
Innovation Solution
A method involving a gateway device that emulates industrial communication devices, using virtual slave and publisher modules to translate messages between proprietary protocols and OPC UA PubSub, allowing seamless communication across domains without modifying existing devices or addressing plans.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If proprietary communication protocols are used in industrial field-bus systems, then device compatibility and interoperability are improved, but system complexity and integration difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gateway device as an intermediary between proprietary industrial field-bus systems and OPC UA PubSub networks. The gateway contains protocol translation functionality that converts messages from proprietary protocols (such as CC-Link IE TSN, Profinet, EtherNet/IP) into OPC UA PubSub messages, enabling interoperability without modifying existing devices. This mediator approach resolves the contradiction by maintaining protocol-specific compatibility while simplifying overall system integration through a centralized translation layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway device is segmented into distinct functional modules: a message reception interface for proprietary protocols, a protocol translation engine, and an OPC UA PubSub publication interface. This segmentation allows each module to handle specific protocol requirements independently, reducing the complexity of managing multiple proprietary protocols simultaneously while maintaining adaptability to different communication standards.
2Productivity
If protocol translation is implemented without gateway devices, then direct communication between devices is achieved, but modifications to existing device programming are required
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway serves as a non-intrusive intermediary that performs protocol translation without requiring modifications to existing industrial devices. The gateway receives proprietary protocol messages through its communication interface, translates them to OPC UA PubSub format, and publishes them to the OPC UA network. This approach maintains high communication efficiency by preserving the original communication patterns of proprietary devices while enabling interoperability with OPC UA systems, eliminating the need to modify device programming or addressing plans.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway creates virtual representations of proprietary protocol messages in the OPC UA PubSub domain. It copies the essential data and control information from proprietary protocol messages and reconstructs them as OPC UA PubSub messages with appropriate topic names, message types, and payload structures. This copying mechanism enables direct communication efficiency while avoiding the complexity of device modifications.
3Measurement precision
If memory mapping and time synchronization are modified for protocol conversion, then communication accuracy is improved, but system stability and reliability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The gateway performs preliminary protocol translation and data normalization before publishing messages to the OPC UA PubSub network. It pre-processes proprietary protocol messages by extracting relevant data, converting data types, and structuring payloads according to OPC UA specifications before publication. This preliminary action ensures communication accuracy by validating and standardizing data formats while maintaining system reliability through deterministic processing that does not require modifying existing device memory mapping or time synchronization configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The gateway changes communication parameters at the message level rather than at the device level. It transforms proprietary protocol-specific parameters (such as message formats, data types, and addressing schemes) into universal OPC UA parameters during the translation process. This parameter transformation maintains communication accuracy by preserving the semantic meaning of original messages while improving system reliability by leaving device-level configurations unchanged.
Data Source
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AI summary
The disclosure relates to a method for interconnecting a primary network domain (PND) with a secondary network domain (SND) through a gateway device (GW). An industrial communication device is emulated, comprising a virtual slave module associated to a virtual slave address in the primary network domain (PND) and a virtual OPC UA publisher module associated to a virtual OPC UA publisher identifier in the secondary network domain (SND) and to an internal OPC UA information model. At least one primary message, comprising the virtual slave address as a destination address and a primary data payload, is received and processed to store the primary data payload according to the internal OPC UA information model. A publisher message, comprising the virtual OPC UA publisher identifier and the stored primary data payload, is generated and transmitted.