Distributed Runtime Service Configuration Without Address Translation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Distributed control systems face challenges in managing configuration data, as central management leads to single-point failures and decentralized management requires costly address translations, causing namespace conflicts and inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
A distributed control system where each runtime service manages its own configuration data with unique identifiers, avoiding central storage and unnecessary address translations by using a concatenation of Global Unique Identifiers and OPC UA node paths for configuration items, allowing services to operate independently and maintain loose coupling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a central, monolithic configuration data management is used, then configuration data can be centrally stored and accessed, but it creates a single-point-of-failure and tightly couples services
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments configuration data management by introducing a configuration namespace that is divided into multiple configuration items, each accessible through unique identifiers. This segmentation allows services to access configuration data without requiring a centralized monolithic structure, thereby eliminating single-point-of-failure while maintaining ease of access through the standardized namespace interface.
2Reliability
If an uncoordinated, de-centralized configuration data management per service is used, then services operate independently, but it requires many costly address translations and may lead to namespace address conflicts
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal configuration namespace that serves all services in the distributed system. This namespace provides a standardized interface for accessing configuration items using unique identifiers, eliminating the need for service-specific address translations. The universal namespace resolves conflicts by ensuring each configuration item has a unique identifier that is recognizable across all services, thereby maintaining service independence while reducing complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
A distributed control system and a corresponding method for industrial processes are provided. The distributed control system comprises one or more runtime services spanning over a server- and control layer. Each runtime service is arranged to manage its own configuration data, and each configuration item of the runtime service is provided with an identifier that is unique within the distributed control system, wherein each such unique identifier is associated with a physical host address corresponding to an endpoint of the respective runtime service and stored as an attribute of its configuration item.