Industrial Controller Alert Notification via Dynamic Subscription
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional industrial control systems face inefficiencies and complexities in alert notification, requiring continuous polling and preconfigured host addresses, which increase bandwidth consumption, delay times, and make it difficult to manage changes in host configurations.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a notification and dynamic subscription process using notify objects that allow hosts to subscribe to alerts of interest without requiring preconfigured host addresses, enabling efficient alert queuing and reduced bandwidth usage, and allowing for dynamic configuration changes without modifying controller programs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If continuous polling is used to notify hosts of alerts, then hosts can be kept informed of controller status, but bandwidth consumption increases and notification delays occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system transitions from continuous periodic polling to event-triggered periodic action, where alerts are sent only when specific events occur in the controller, eliminating unnecessary periodic communications while maintaining reliable notification when needed
Solution Approach 2:
The controller autonomously generates and sends alerts when events occur, without requiring external polling requests from hosts, enabling the system to self-notify relevant parties of status changes without consuming bandwidth for unnecessary communications
2Ease of operation
If preconfigured host addresses are used in controller instructions, then alert notifications can be sent to specific hosts, but system complexity increases when host configurations change
Solution Approach 1:
The system replaces static preconfigured host addresses with dynamic host identification, where hosts are identified by dynamic variables that can be modified without changing controller instructions, allowing the system to adapt to configuration changes automatically
Solution Approach 2:
Host address mappings are preestablished in a table structure that separates host identification from controller logic, allowing configuration changes to be made in advance through table updates rather than requiring modifications to controller instructions
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple hosts are notified of alerts individually, then each host receives specific alert information, but notification delays increase and bandwidth usage rises
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple individual alert notifications to different hosts are merged into a single consolidated alert packet that contains information for multiple hosts, reducing the number of separate transmissions and eliminating sequential notification delays while maintaining the ability to notify multiple hosts
Data Source
AI summary
The subject invention facilitates alert notification in an industrial environment. The systems and methods enable subscribing devices, such as hosts, to receive events and/or alarms associated with industrial controllers. In addition, a subscribed component can unsubscribe, refresh notification related information, and/or acknowledge a notification. The foregoing can be achieved through a set of objects (e.g., notify objects) that implement a notification and dynamic subscription process. A host system can instantiate an associated notify object, subscribe to an event, and be notified about the event. The invention enables multiple hosts to subscribe to the same event, allows each host to select events of interest, and enables the events to be queued if the events occur faster than can be sent. In one aspect of the invention, the systems and methods can be utilized with an event and alarm infrastructure that is applicable on a Control and Information Protocol (CIP).