Multiple Interface Data Exchange System for Protocol Translation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Industrial control systems face challenges in integrating applications and instrumentation due to protocol compatibility issues, limiting the ability to mix-and-match hardware components from different vendors and hindering system upgrades, as current solutions like protocol converters require real-time synchronous communication and do not store data for access at different times.
Innovation Solution
A multiple interface data exchange (MIDE) system with a central computer and persistent in-memory storage that receives and stores data in a canonical format, allowing asynchronous communication between applications using different protocols, and includes security standards for authentication, enabling data access regardless of the communication protocol used by connected applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If protocol converters are used for real-time synchronous communication between applications using different protocols, then data exchange capability is improved, but system complexity increases and data cannot be stored for later access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a message broker as an intermediary component that receives messages from publishers and delivers them to subscribers. This broker acts as a mediator that handles protocol conversion and message routing centrally, eliminating the need for multiple point-to-point protocol converters between each application pair. The broker maintains a message queue that stores messages for later retrieval, enabling asynchronous communication patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables periodic or event-driven message publication where applications publish data at their own节奏 rather than requiring synchronous real-time communication. Subscribers can retrieve messages at their convenience from the broker's message queue, allowing for flexible timing patterns that reduce system complexity while maintaining data exchange capability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If point-to-point protocol converters are deployed for each communication line between applications, then protocol compatibility is improved, but the number of conversion points increases leading to more potential failure points
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates multiple distributed protocol conversion functions into a single centralized message broker. Instead of having separate protocol converters at each communication line between applications, all protocol conversion operations are merged into one broker component. This centralization reduces the total number of conversion points from O(n²) in a mesh topology to O(n) with the broker, thereby improving system reliability by reducing potential failure points.
3Measurement precision
If synchronous real-time communication is required between sending and receiving applications, then data transmission accuracy is improved, but the requirement for both applications to be operational simultaneously limits flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The message broker performs preliminary action by receiving and storing messages from publishers before subscribers need them. Messages are queued in the broker's message store with their original data integrity preserved. When subscribers need the data, they retrieve it from the stored queue, ensuring both data accuracy and flexible timing. This eliminates the requirement for synchronous communication while maintaining data transmission accuracy through persistent storage.
Solution Approach 2:
The broker creates copies of messages for distribution to multiple subscribers without requiring the original publisher and subscriber to communicate directly. Each subscriber receives a copy of the message from the broker's storage, ensuring data accuracy is maintained through faithful replication while enabling asynchronous access patterns that increase communication flexibility.
Data Source
AI summary
A multiple interface data exchange system utilizes a persistent in-memory storage in asynchronous data communication with a plurality of interfaces. Each interface is configured to communicate with at least one application using a particular communication protocol. The persistent in-memory storage stores tuple data sets received from applications transmitting data to the connected interface in a canonical (universal) format, automatically creating new tuples and updating existing tuples. The canonical format of the data is quickly queried in the persistent in-memory storage and available to other applications in connection with the multiple interface data exchange system regardless of the communication protocol used by a requesting application.