Hot-standby redundancy control system, method, control apparatus, and computer readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12013769-B2
Application number	US-201817059282-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 31, 2018
Priority date	May 31, 2018
Publication date	Jun 18, 2024
Grant date	Jun 18, 2024

Abstract

A hot-standby redundancy control system is disclosed. In an embodiment, the system includes multiple primary control apparatuses, each respectively running a process of the hot-standby redundancy control system; a backup control apparatus pool including at least one industrial personal computer (IPC), with multiple virtual control apparatuses being established on at least one IPC, and the multiple virtual control apparatuses established being in one-to-one correspondence with the multiple primary control apparatuses, and each respective multiple virtual control apparatus running a same process as a respective corresponding primary control apparatus; a control bus, to connect one or more of the t least one IPC in the multiple primary control apparatuses and the backup control apparatus pool; and a field bus, to connect one or more of the at least one IPC in the multiple primary control apparatuses and the backup control apparatus pool and multiple field apparatuses.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A hot-standby redundancy control system, comprising:
multiple primary control apparatuses, each of the multiple primary control apparatuses configured to respectively run a process of the hot-standby redundancy control system;
a backup control apparatus pool, the backup control apparatus pool including at least one industrial personal computer (IPC), the at least one IPC configured to establish multiple virtual control apparatuses, the multiple virtual control apparatuses established on the at least one IPC being in one-to-one correspondence with the multiple primary control apparatuses, and wherein each respective multiple virtual control apparatus is configured to run a same process as a respective corresponding primary control apparatus;
a control bus connecting one or more of the multiple primary control apparatuses and the at least one IPC; and
a field bus connecting the one or more of the multiple primary control apparatuses, the at least one IPC, and multiple field apparatuses.

2. The hot-standby redundancy control system of claim 1 , wherein the control bus and the field bus are implemented by a standard bus based on industrial Ethernet technology.

3. The hot-standby redundancy control system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one IPC comprises:
a processor configured to cause the at least one IPC to run
a general-purpose operating system configured to provide a configuration management program and an interface for managing the multiple virtual control apparatuses, and
a virtual machine monitor configured to allocate hardware resources to the virtual control apparatuses.

4. The hot-standby redundancy control system of claim 3 , wherein the processor is a multi-core processor having M cores, M being an integer greater than 1, and
wherein the processor is configured to
run the general-purpose operating system ie n-on one core of the multi-core processor, and
run M−1 virtual machines on the remaining M−1 cores to establish M−1 virtual control apparatuses.

5. The hot-standby redundancy control system of claim 4 , wherein a number of the one or more IPCs is based upon a number of processes running in the control system and a number of cores of the multi-core processor.

6. The hot-standby redundancy control system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one IPC comprises:
a processor configured to cause the at last one IPC to run
the multiple virtual control apparatuses,
a general-purpose operating system configured to provide a configuration management program and an interface for managing the multiple virtual control apparatuses, and
a virtual machine monitor configured to allocate hardware resources to the virtual control apparatuses.

7. The hot-standby redundancy control system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is a multi-core processor having M cores, M being an integer greater than 1, and
wherein the processor is configured to
run the general-purpose operating system on one core of the multi-core processor, and
run M−1 virtual machines on the remaining M−1 cores to establish M−1 virtual control apparatuses.

8. The hot-standby redundancy control system of claim 7 , wherein a number of the one or more IPCs is based upon a number of processes running in the control system and a number of cores of the multi-core processor.

9. A control apparatus, comprising:
a processor configured to cause the control apparatus to
run multiple virtual control apparatuses in one-to-one correspondence with multiple primary control apparatuses, each respective virtual control apparatus, of the multiple virtual control apparatuses, running a same process as a corresponding respective primary control apparatus, of the multiple primary control apparatuses;
run a general-purpose operating system configured to provide a configuration management program and an interface for managing the multiple virtual control apparatuses; and
run a virtual machine configured to configure hardware resources for the multiple virtual control apparatuses.

10. The control apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the processor is a multi-core processor having M cores, M being an integer greater than 1, and
wherein the processor is configured to
run the general-purpose operating system on one core of the multi-core processor, and
run M−1 virtual machines on the M−1 remaining cores of the multi-core processor, respectively, to establish M−1 virtual control apparatuses.

11. A hot-standby redundancy method, applicable to an industrial personal computer (IPC) running at least one virtual control apparatus, the method comprising:
periodically receiving, by each virtual control apparatus of multiple virtual control apparatuses via a control bus of a control system, a heartbeat signal from a corresponding primary control apparatus, wherein said multiple virtual control apparatuses are in respective one-to-one correspondence with multiple primary control apparatuses in the control system and wherein each respective virtual control apparatus runs a same process as a corresponding primary control apparatus; and
outputting, in response to a respective virtual control apparatus having received no heartbeat signals from a corresponding primary control apparatus via said control bus within a given time, a self-outputted signal to a corresponding field apparatus in the control system via a field bus of the control system.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:
running a virtual machine monitor on hardware of the IPC;
running a general-purpose operating system on the virtual machine monitor, the general-purpose operating system configured to provide a configuration management program and a configuration management interface; and
running, via the configuration management interface, multiple virtual machines on the virtual machine monitor as the multiple virtual control apparatuses.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein a processor of the IPC is a multi-core processor having multiple cores, and wherein the multiple virtual machines are in one-to-one correspondence with multiple cores of the multi-core processor.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause an apparatus to implement the hot-standby redundancy method of claim 11 .

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause an apparatus to implement the hot-standby redundancy method of claim 6 .

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause an apparatus to implement the hot-standby redundancy method of claim 13 .

Assignees

• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Li Dong
• Yang xiao bo
• Wang tong zhou
• Tang Yao Lei
• Zhang chuan yu

Classifications

• G06F2009/45579

  I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage · CPC title

• G06F13/20

  for access to input/output bus · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G05B2219/34488

  One computer, controller replaces other, backup computer · CPC title

• Y02P90/02

  Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS] · CPC title