Real-Time Communication for Large Scale Distributed Control Systems

Because of their scale, complexity and requirement of expandability, Large Scale Distributed Control Systems (LSDCS) are usually created in a multistep integration process. To succeed, it has to be governed by well-defined information architecture, appropriate communication infrastructure and the supervisory role of the time notion taken into consideration from the very beginning of the design stage. Mutual influence of the architecture and underlying communication is discussed in the paper and a novel systematic design methodology is proposed to greatly reduce the complexity. A dedicated communication component is proposed in this approach. Functionality and scheduling algorithms offered by these components enable to satisfy all the defined prerequisites of the real-time distributed control and design the robust system in a systematic and uniform way. The presented case study proves that the solution not only allows the real-time process requirements to be met, but also is a platform for multi-enterprise collaboration.