Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Miscellaneous
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-27
2001-02-20
Matar, Ahmad F. (Department: 2758)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Miscellaneous
C709S200000, C709S201000, C709S202000, C709S203000, C709S241000, C709S241000, C345S520000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06192390
ABSTRACT:
SPECIFICATION
The invention relates to a method for the location-independent exchange of process data within one or more technical plants.
During the integration of plant components from different manufacturers and the progressive integration of parts of the business process, an integration of different computer systems is frequently also necessary within a technical plant such as, for example, a power station or the plants of a utility company.
In power stations, for example, the following computer systems are provided:
process computers in automation systems,
local computers in automation systems,
computers with application programs for process optimization and system management,
complete management systems, and
accounting and billing systems.
Hitherto, such computer systems have been separate solutions. The exchange of data between them takes place, in part, manually or by means of individual, specially developed connections. Point-to-point connections were implemented and in some cases still are. The creation and maintenance of such systems is expensive and susceptible to faults. There are also disadvantages with respect to other aspects such as, for example, security, expandability and upward-compatibility.
FIG. 4
shows a typical situation in the integration of computers and software packages in a power station. By way of example, four connections
1
to
4
are shown, each of these connections being implemented by a separate mechanism.
Connection
1
between a process computer
1
of a manufacturer A and standard office packages on a PC operates with SQL interfaces with direct access to database tables. The disadvantages with this arrangement are that the structure of the database must be disclosed and only relational databases and the contents stored in them can be interrogated and no event control is possible.
Connection
2
between a process computer
3
of a manufacturer B and standard office packages on a PC operates with file transfer via specially written programs, using generally available file transfer programs. The disadvantages with this arrangement are the slow operation, lack of event orientation and need for a separate parser.
Connection
3
between a process computer
1
of a manufacturer A and a process computer
2
of a manufacturer B operates with communication via the detour of a process control system. This means that a computer system
1
or
3
couples data onto the control system bus via available devices of the control system and another computer extracts them again. The disadvantages are that, for this purpose, drivers must be generally written down to the bottom protocol level, the control system is loaded by the data traffic and the volumes of data which can be exchanged are small.
Connection
4
between a process computer
3
of a manufacturer B and a management system operates with manual data exchange by “copying” the data and entering them again into the destination system. There is no integration in the actual sense of the word in this arrangement.
FIG. 5
shows a known approach to a solution, called data integration, for integrating computer systems with decoupling of process computer systems and user programs, and the abovementioned disadvantages being avoided. In this arrangement, a central data base with, for example, a relational data base management system (RDBMS) is provided. In such a method, the exchange of process data takes place in such a manner that the process computers store their process data in central data storage and the application programs access the process data by means of quasi-standardized access mechanisms decoupled in time from this storage process. Disadvantages of this approach to a solution consist in that the data must be edited in such a manner that they can be stored in relational data bases or at least can be retrieved in such a form. The problem of consistency of data is difficult to handle. Event-oriented processing of the data is not possible. Adaptation to a modified business process or work sequence is complex. The internal structure of the process computer systems to be coupled must be known and generally must not change any more. The problem of access protection, especially for writing data into the process computer systems, has not been solved satisfactorily.
The invention is based on the object of specifying a method which is intended for exchanging process data of a number of different process computers and—in contrast to data integration—permits application integration.
This object is achieved by a method for the location-independent exchange of process data having the features specified in claim
1
. Advantageous developments are specified in further claims.
Advantages of the method consist, inter alia, in that data interrogations and data inputs are possible at any process computers. There is decoupling of network, process computer system and application programs. All conventional hardware and software platforms can be supported. The expenditure for configuration and commissioning is minimal. Further advantages are the consideration of redundancy concepts, a modular configuration, expandability and general upward-compatibility.
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patent: 5247670 (1993-09-01), Matsunaga
patent: 5442791 (1995-08-01), Wrabetz et al.
patent: 5457797 (1995-10-01), Burtterworth
patent: 5557780 (1996-09-01), Edwards et al.
patent: 5708828 (1998-01-01), Coleman
patent: 5884312 (1999-03-01), Dustan et al.
patent: 5894573 (1999-04-01), Fukasawa et al.
patent: 5928335 (1999-07-01), Morita
patent: 5987497 (1999-11-01), Allgeier
Berger Wolfgang
Wietzke Stefan
ABB Patent GmbH
Greenberg Laurence A.
Lerner Herbert L.
Matar Ahmad F.
Nguyen Thu Ha
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