Middleware for Distributed Industrial Real-Time Systems on ATM Networks
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MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC RESEARCH LABORATORIES http://www.merl.com Middleware for Distributed Industrial Real-Time Systems on ATM Networks Ichiro Mizunuma, Chia Shen, Morikazu Takegaki TR96-10a September 1996 Abstract In this paper we address the problem of middleware design for constructing ATM LAN based distributed industrial plant monitoring and control systems. In particular, we present a real-time client-server programming model based on a uniform ATM network. This model is being real- ized in our middleware called MidART. The middleware provides a set of industrial application specific but network transparent programming abstractions and application programming inter- face (API) that support individual application QoS requirements. In order to achieve on-demand transmission of plant data, we have developed a concept called selective real-time channels to be supported by MidART. We present the design and protocols of selective real-time channels and describe how QoS requirements of applications are guaranteed. Proceedings of the 17th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, Washington, DC 1996 This work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonprofit educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright c Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc., 1996 201 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 MERLCoverPageSide2 Middleware for Distributed Industrial Real-Time Systems on ATM Networks y z y Ichiro Mizunuma , Chia Shen , and Morikazu Takegaki y Industrial Electronics and Systems Lab., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. 8-1-1, Tsukaguchi-honmachi, Amagasaki, Hyogo, 661, Japan. email: mizunuma,[email protected] dl.m elco .co. jp z A Mitsubishi Electric Reseach Lab. 201 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 USA email: [email protected] Abstract In this paper we address the problem of ble, exp ensive, dicult to mo dify and not scalable. midd leware design for constructing ATM LAN based Figure 1 is a typical example of a current industrial distributed industrial plant monitoring and control control system, similar to those systems from Mit- systems. In particular, we present a real-time client- subishi Electric Corp. and those discussed in [Meinert server programming mo del based on a uniform ATM 95]. The network architecture contains twolayers, a network. This model is being realized in our mid- control layer and an information layer. The network d leware cal led MidART. The midd leware provides a bus in the control layer is compliant with FDDI con- set of industrial application speci c but network trans- necting together proprietary subsystems such as pro- parent programming abstractions and application pro- grammable logic controllers PLCs, and op erator sta- gramming interface API that support individual ap- tions OPSes. A proprietary proto col, called cyclic plication QoS requirements. In order to achieve on- transmission, is used to achieve guaranteed end-to- demand transmission of plant data, we have developed end delays in the control layer among the subsystems. aconcept cal led selective real-time channels to be sup- Each no de subsystem in the network contains a dual portedbyMidART.Wepresent the design and proto- p ort memory for cyclic transmission. The contents of cols of selective real-time channels and describe how each cyclic area are transmitted within some constant QoS requirements of applications are guaranteed. p erio d to all the no des. The information layer employs standard general purp ose comp onents for low cost. 1 Intro duction This layer contains an Ethernet LAN and a number of workstations EWSes. The EWSes handle plant We address the problem of middleware design for information management, plant maintenance, and re- constructing ATM LAN based industrial plant mon- p ort generation. itoring and control systems. These systems are real- This twolayer system architecture has some obvi- time in nature, requiring the guarantee of hard tim- ous problems: ing constraints in resp onse to b oth human op erations and sensor noti cation of plant states. Traditionally, Lack of scalability: The contents of the cyclic such distributed plant control systems have b een built memory areas are p erio dically transmitted even mostly with proprietary network comp onents and host if there have b een no changes in the data in systems, and real-time constraints are met with phys- those areas. This causes network resources to b e ical isolation of sub-networks. In order to guarantee wasted, thus limiting the amount of communica- the timing constraints of plant control, the worksta- tion the network can supp ort. In addition, the tions supp orting the human interface for plant infor- scale of the distributed system is limited by the mation management often do not reside on the same size of the cyclic memory area. physical network as the network in the controlled plant sites. Similarly, another separate physical network is Fixed QoS Quality of Service: The QoS is xed used for video transmission from industrial TV cam- by the cyclic transmission p erio d and cannot b e eras in the plant monitoring sites. Consequently, these altered according to dynamic application require- current distributed plant control systems are in exi- ments. with an ATM network. The advantages of such a uni- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA layer Information Information work architeture include: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMonitoring management Maintenance Report-generation form net AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEWS EWS EWS EWS Flexible QoS can be supp orted on per applica- General purpose LAN AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA(ex. Ethernet) Trac that needs deterministic guar- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOperating Post-analysis tion basis. Gateway tee and trac that can tolerate larger trans- OPS Data an AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAlogger delay variation can p otentially co-exist AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA mission Control layer Control bus (FDDI based) the same network. For distributed real-time AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA in e can readily utilize the concept of AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA applications, w PLC PLC PLC hannels [Ferrari 90]. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFieldbus real-time c AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA The con guration of the system can be easily AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASensors / Actuators mo di ed by adding or removing subsystems on a plug-and-play basis, since we can employ stan- Figure 1: Con guration of current systems. dard platforms now. With a uniform network technology for the entire system, we have eliminated b ottlenecks such as Hierarchically layered network: Gateways are em- gateways which p ose p erformance and reliability ployed to connect the control bus and Ethernet. 1 problems . The gateways can b e a system b ottleneck for p er- formance and reliability. Not all the real-time data need to b e p erio dically transmitted | on-demand transmission of plant data or video can b e accommo dated. By integrating video and audio, new services can Human (e.g. operators) provided. For example, alarm video can be AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA be implemented in which abnormal plant b ehavior AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACl i ent now be shown using video to op erators on AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAData logger R eport- can O PS M anagem ent s orkstations. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAgeneration their w AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA In order to obtain these advantages in a plant Integrated ATM Network and control system, a new style of pro- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA monitoring construct distributed real-time systems AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA gramming to Ser needed. In particular, each application must be C ontroller Multi-media is AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAserver ver ITV s to request and acquire its own individual QoS. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAFieldbus able ts a real-time client-server program- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA This pap er presen Sensors / Actuators del for distributed real-time systems based on AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ming mo uniform ATM network. This mo del is b eing real- Plant a ized in our middleware called MidART Mid dleware and network A rchitec ture for R eal-T ime industrial applications. This middleware provides a set of in- Figure 2: New system architecture with ATM net- dustrial application sp eci c but network transparent work. programming abstractions and application program- ming interface API, as well as a set of QoS mapping schemes and proto cols that translate application level Weenvision that the four key technical advantages real-time requirements into ATM QoS parameters and of ATM, i.e., high bandwidth, end-to-end individual trac descriptors, including schemes to ensure that QoS, virtual connections and exible topology , will en- this mapping maintains the timing guarantees at b oth able us to build future distributed plant control sys- the sender and the receiver. In addition, to achieve tems on op en standard network technology with in- on-demand transmission of plant data, we have also tegrated communication services including data, im- develop ed a concept of selective real-time channels. ages, video and audio. This should lead to cost re- 1 Current commercially available ATM switches already sup- duction, more exibility and more dynamics in appli- p ort hot-swappable duplex switch b oards in the case of faults cations. Figure 2 represents a new, exible system in primary b oard, the second b oard stands for immediately for reliability and continuous op eration. architecture of a plant monitoring and control system The rest of the pap er is organized as follows. Sec- cation pro cess guarantee. To provide application-to- tion 2 gives a brief overview of the MidART architec- application QoS guarantee in a distributed real-time ture. In Section 3, we present our real-time client- system, we must ensure that a sucient resources server programing mo del and show programming ab- e.g., CPU, bu er space, network bandwidth, etc.