Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer protocol implementing – Computer-to-computer data transfer regulating
Patent
1995-11-22
1999-11-02
Pan, Daniel H.
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer protocol implementing
Computer-to-computer data transfer regulating
709233, 370232, 370236, G06F 1342, H04L 1246
Patent
active
059788518
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a distributed control system comprising a plurality of controllers, a program apparatus, and man-machine systems, which are all interconnected by a network and, more specifically, relates to a configuring method including for achieving optimal configuration of large scale control systems.
In a known method for providing programming for a plurality of controllers, system designers define the specification of the macro programs to be executed in the individual controllers on the basis of the expected load rate and of the expected traffic quantity of the network. The designers then further breakdown the specification in terms of the description of the macro programs.
In order to achieve a concrete and visible grasp of the control status of the operated systems, the network monitors and CPU monitors are connected outside the operated system, and the load rate and the traffic quantity of the network are detected individually.
In the above prior art systems, there is no serious problem in the case of small-scale distributed systems having a small number of controllers. In the case of large-scale distributed systems having a large number of controllers, however, there results a problem of overhead for realizing optimal decision for macro programs to be executed in the individual controllers.
In addition, in the prior art, in view of system performance including a balanced distribution of the load rate across the controllers and a minimization of the access occurrence of the network traffic, there is no guarantee that human judgment regarding the allotment of macro programs will reach optimal levels.
Even if the controlled object is determined explicitly, because the number of controllers required for controlling these objects cannot be determined quickly, a large amount of time is spent for specification definition of the distributed systems.
And furthermore, in the actual operation of the distributed control systems after their installation, as the above mentioned external apparatus are necessary for detecting the load rate of the arithmetic unit and the network traffic, the cost of the system increases.
Finally, in the prior art, due to the system performance limitations, the allotment of the control programs cannot be changed dynamically so as to estimate the overall status of the system under operation and optimize the system operation.
The above mentioned problem can be resolved by the following technical means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above problem can be resolved by the program apparatus for deciding optimally the selection of the programs to be executed in the individual controllers, said apparatus comprising an optimization table for storing the load rate of each controller, the procedural rate of each macro program, and the amount of information commonly shared by the individual macro programs, and a multiple objective optimization means for optimizing the operation status of the distributed control system in multiple objective manner in view of the system performance.
As for the guarantee of the optimality of the control system, the optimality can be established by installing a system performance monitoring means for evaluating the optimized configuration of the system through using an energy function and presenting the evaluated result to the user.
In order to support the decision of the number of controllers required for effecting satisfactory control, the solution is to provide the output means with a function for estimating the energy function by varying the number of the controllers and presenting the optimal number of the controllers.
In order to optimize the operation status of the controlled system in real time, the solution is to provide the arithmetic unit of the controller with the first detection means for detecting the load rate, to provide the communication unit with the second detection means for detecting the network traffic, to provide the man-machine apparatus with the control system operation status estimation mean
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patent: 4669113 (1987-05-01), Ash et al.
patent: 4704676 (1987-11-01), Flanagan et al.
patent: 4771391 (1988-09-01), Blasbalg
Kamigane Yoshihiro
Kayama Masahiro
Matsuda Toshihiko
Morooka Yasuo
Hitachi , Ltd.
Pan Daniel H.
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