Hosting Device Standardizes Alarm Behaviors for Legacy Industrial Systems
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial control systems face inconsistencies and unpredictability due to grandfathered devices that are not compliant with standards like ISA 18.2, leading to burdensome replacements and operator confusion, as these devices cannot independently implement functionalities such as alarm prioritization, shelving, and suppression.
Innovation Solution
A hosting device is implemented to provide standard functionalities like alarm prioritization, shelving, and suppression for non-compliant devices, using machine-readable instructions and a processor to interpret and apply ISA 18.2 alarm management standards, enabling consistent behavior across the system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If grandfathered non-compliant devices are retained in the system, then device replacement costs and time are avoided, but system consistency and operator predictability deteriorate due to inconsistent alarm behaviors
Solution Approach 1:
The hosting device acts as an intermediary between non-compliant devices and the control system. It receives alarm data from legacy devices that cannot independently implement ISA 18.2 functionalities, processes the data according to standard behaviors (prioritization, shelving, suppression), and presents standardized alarm information to operators. This mediator approach allows non-compliant devices to operate without replacement while achieving system-wide consistency.
2Reliability
If non-compliant devices are replaced with compliant devices, then system consistency and standard compliance are improved, but replacement costs and operational disruption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The hosting device serves as a cost-effective intermediary solution that provides standard compliance without requiring physical device replacement. It implements ISA 18.2 alarm management functionalities centrally, allowing legacy devices to remain in service while achieving standard compliance through the hosting device's standardized processing and presentation of alarm data.
Solution Approach 2:
The hosting device provides universal alarm management functionality that serves multiple non-compliant devices simultaneously. Instead of requiring each individual device to be replaced or upgraded, a single hosting device can standardize alarm behaviors across multiple legacy devices, reducing overall system cost and complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If devices independently implement alarm functionalities, then device autonomy and responsiveness are improved, but system complexity and integration difficulty increase when mixing compliant and non-compliant devices
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of having each device independently implement alarm functionalities (bottom-up approach), the solution inverts the architecture by having a central hosting device implement the functionalities (top-down approach). The hosting device receives raw alarm data from simple non-compliant devices and applies standard behaviors centrally, reducing integration complexity while maintaining system-wide adaptability.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system (100) includes a standard functionality hosting device (104). The hosting device includes standard functionality hosting logic (102) that includes machine-readable instructions stored on a tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium configured to implement, control, or implement and control management functionalities defined by a standard, for one or more devices (38) that are not independently enabled to implement, control, or implement and control the management functionalities. Further, the hosting device (104) includes a processor configured to implement the alarm standard hosting logic (102).