Automatic load balancing and performance leveling of virtual nodes running real-time control in process control systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11537112-B2
Application number	US-202016874216-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 14, 2020
Priority date	Jun 10, 2019
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

A Multi-Purpose Dynamic Simulation and run-time Control platform includes a virtual process environment coupled to a physical process environment, where components/nodes of the virtual and physical process environments cooperate to dynamically perform run-time process control of an industrial process plant and/or simulations thereof. Virtual components may include virtual run-time nodes and/or simulated nodes. The MPDSC includes an I/O Switch which delivers I/O data between virtual and/or physical nodes, e.g., by using publish/subscribe mechanisms, thereby virtualizing physical I/O process data delivery. Nodes serviced by the I/O Switch may include respective component behavior modules that are unaware as to whether or not they are being utilized on a virtual or physical node. Simulations may be performed in real-time and even in conjunction with run-time operations of the plant, and/or simulations may be manipulated as desired (speed, values, administration, etc.). The platform simultaneously supports simulation and run-time operations and interactions/intersections therebetween.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A system of an industrial process plant, the system comprising:
a plurality of virtual nodes disposed in a virtual environment of the industrial process plant and implemented on a virtualization platform, the plurality of virtual nodes operating, during run-time operations of the industrial process plant, to control an industrial process by publishing data to an input/output (I/O) switch and subscribing to data published by the I/O switch, the I/O switch communicatively connecting the plurality of virtual nodes to a plurality of physical nodes disposed in a physical environment of the industrial process plant, the plurality of physical nodes operating, during the run-time operations of the industrial process plant, to control the industrial process by sending data to and receiving data from the plurality of virtual nodes via the I/O switch, and the plurality of physical nodes including at least one field device;
the plurality of virtual nodes virtualizing at least one of: (i) one or more physical components that are deployable within the physical environment of the industrial process plant to control the industrial process, or (ii) one or more sub-components of the one or more physical components,
each virtual node of the plurality of virtual nodes including a respective at least one component behavior module that operates on content of first data received from the I/O switch via a respective one or more subscriptions to generate second data and that publishes the second data to the I/O switch for delivery to another process control component to thereby control a respective at least a portion of the industrial process,
a plurality of subscriptions of the plurality of virtual nodes to the data published by the I/O switch corresponding to a first portion of a plurality of I/O assignments, and
a plurality of publications, by the plurality of virtual nodes, of the data to the I/O switch corresponding to a second portion of the plurality of I/O assignments,
wherein a load of the virtualization platform is balanced across the plurality of virtual nodes based on the plurality of I/O assignments and a configured boundary condition.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the virtualization platform comprises one or more interconnected computing devices having one or more processors and one or more tangible memory devices, the one or more processors executing computer-executable instructions stored on the one or more tangible memory devices to provide the plurality of virtual nodes.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the balancing of the load of the virtualization platform includes a re-assignment of at least a portion of the plurality of I/O assignments to different virtual nodes.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the balancing of the load of the virtualization platform includes one of: a removal of a specific virtual node from the plurality of virtual nodes implemented on the virtualization platform, or a creation of an additional virtual node implemented on the virtualization platform.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the load of the virtualization platform includes at least one of a software resource load or a hardware resource load.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the load of the virtualization platform includes at least one of a memory resource load or a traffic load.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein performance levels corresponding to the plurality of virtual nodes are balanced at the virtualization platform based on the plurality of I/O assignments.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the performance levels corresponding to the plurality of virtual nodes are balanced further based on a configured boundary condition.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the balancing of performance levels corresponding to the plurality of virtual nodes includes a re-assignment of at least a portion of the plurality of I/O assignments to different virtual nodes.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the balancing of the performance levels corresponding to the plurality of virtual nodes includes one of: a removal of a particular virtual node from the plurality of virtual nodes implemented on the virtualization platform, or a creation of an additional virtual node implemented on the virtualization platform.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the balancing of performance levels corresponding to the plurality of virtual nodes includes a balancing of a utilization of one or more processors of the virtualization platform on which the plurality of virtual nodes is implemented.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the balancing of performance levels corresponding to the plurality of virtual nodes includes a balancing of a utilization of one or more interconnected computing devices of the virtualization platform on which the plurality of virtual nodes is implemented.

13. The system of claim 7 , wherein the balancing of performance levels corresponding to the plurality of virtual nodes includes a balancing of a utilization of at least one of a network or one or more links interconnecting one or more interconnected computing devices of the virtualization platform on which the plurality of virtual nodes is implemented.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the balancing of the load of the virtualization platform across the plurality of virtual nodes or a balancing of performance levels corresponding to the plurality of virtual nodes is automatically performed, without any in-line user input, based on the plurality of I/O assignments.

15. The system of claim 14 , further comprising a virtualization management node that is communicatively connected, within the virtual environment, to the plurality of the virtual nodes, and that automatically performs the at least one of the balancing of the load of the virtualization platform or the balancing of the performance levels corresponding to the plurality of virtual nodes based on one or more detected and/or predicted conditions of the virtualization platform.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the one or more detected and/or predicted conditions of the virtualization platform include at least one of a detected occurrence of a first fault or a predicted occurrence of a second fault.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein, upon at least one of an initialization or a commissioning of the virtualization platform, the virtualization management node creates the plurality of virtual nodes based on the plurality of I/O assignments, the plurality of I/O assignments determined based on one or more system configuration databases of the industrial process plant.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the virtualization management node further determines the plurality of I/O assignments based on the one or more system configuration databases upon the at least one of the initialization or the commissioning of the virtualization platform.

19. A method at an industrial process plant, the method comprising:
during run-time operations of the industrial process plant:
detecting and/or predicting one or more conditions occurring at a virtualization platform on which a plurality of virtual nodes of a process control system is implemented while the plurality of virtual nodes is operating to control an industrial process by publishing data to an input/output (I/O) switch and subscribing to data published by the I/O switch, the plurality of virtual nodes disposed in a virtual environment of the industrial process plant, the I/O switch included in the process control system and communicatively connecting the plurality of virtual node

Assignees

• Fisher Rosemount Systems Inc

Inventors

• Nixon Mark J
• Amaro Jr Anthony
• Bell Noel Howard
• Caldwell John M
• Law Gary K

Classifications

• G06F9/3017

  Runtime instruction translation, e.g. macros · CPC title

• G05B2219/32407

  Real time processing of data · CPC title

• G05B19/4185 Primary

  characterised by the network communication · CPC title

• G05B2219/31231

  Lan and stations and fieldbus, each station controls own I-O · CPC title

• G05B19/41885 Primary

  characterised by modeling, simulation of the manufacturing system · CPC title