Computer implemented method for configuring a process network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12470458-B2
Application number	US-202418635155-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 15, 2024
Priority date	Apr 21, 2023
Publication date	Nov 11, 2025
Grant date	Nov 11, 2025

Abstract

A method for creating a configuration of a communication network, which includes networking and automation devices with embedded networking functions, the automation devices comprising communication endpoints providing and/or consuming application data of attached automation application functions running on the automation devices. The method includes communicating information about application functions and intents, receiving and resolving, by determining physical or virtual devices according to the network topology, to obtain identities and addresses of the communication endpoints; receiving timing information and further QoS requirements, and binding, taking into account the timing information and the further QoS requirements; creating qualified connectivity requests for the communication between the identifiable and addressable communication endpoints, and obtaining configuration information according to which the process network can be configured.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer implemented method for creating a configuration of a communication network of an automation system, wherein the communication network includes networking and automation devices with embedded networking functions, the automation devices comprising communication endpoints providing and/or consuming application data of attached automation application functions running on the automation devices, the method comprising:
receiving communication information comprising required communication connections between application functions attached to the communication endpoints and connection requirements of the respective connections and creating communication intents containing a structured definition of the required communication connections combined with their connection requirements; receiving network topology information and resolving the communication endpoints by determining physical or virtual devices according to the network topology to obtain identities and/or addresses of the communication endpoints; receiving timing information and further QoS requirements, and binding communication intents taking into account the timing information and further QoS requirements; creating a qualified connectivity request for the communication between the identifiable and addressable communication endpoints for obtaining configuration information according to which the communication network can be configured.

2 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the process network comprises a network controller; wherein the qualified connectivity request is sent to the network controller for creating the configuration for the networking devices; and wherein the network controller creates a network configuration and configures the networking devices with the network configuration by downloading the network configuration to the networking devices and/or returns a network configuration which can be used for configuring the network devices.

3 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein receiving communication information and creating communication intents comprises reading data from at least one existing engineering artifact, and wherein the connection requirements are user defined rules.

4 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein receiving network topology information and resolving communication endpoints comprises receiving information about at least one of:
an allocation of control applications to controllers specified in engineering tools; orchestration deployment results of virtualized control applications on software runtime environments; an allocation of I/O signals or signal sets to I/O devices; and an offline topology or a discovered online topology.

5 . The computer implemented method according to claim 4 , wherein the offline topology is derived from a meta-model.

6 . The computer implemented method according to claim 4 , wherein the offline topology is described as a topology model.

7 . The computer implemented method according to claim 4 , wherein the offline topology is derived from a standardized network description.

8 . The computer implemented method according to claim 4 , wherein the offline topology comprises an application topology; wherein the application topology comprises the communication endpoints and network services required by the application; and wherein the meta-model describes at least the network services.

9 . The computer implemented method according to claim 4 , wherein the offline topology comprises a physical topology; wherein the physical topology is obtained from the standardized network description; and wherein the standardized network description is contained in a data file.

10 . The computer implemented method according to claim 4 , wherein the online topology is discovered using a Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) in conjunction with a management protocol including SNMP, NETCONF/RESTCONF, and/or Redfish protocol.

11 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the timing information and further QoS requirements include: amount of data to be transmitted during a defined time period, earliest and latest transmission time, I/O scan time of a network controller, input scan time of I/O devices or individual channels, compute time in the physical or virtualized process controller, data output time, expected cyclic data, redundancy and/or latency and jitter.

12 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the configuration of networking devices comprises creating a file containing a YANG model, wherein the YANG model describes the configuration of the networking devices.

13 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the qualified connectivity request for the communication between identified and addressable communication endpoints is performed using an API call.

14 . The computer implemented method according to claim 13 , wherein after creating a qualified connectivity request for the communication between identified and addressable communication endpoints, the method further includes receiving a synchronous or asynchronous response or notification from the network controller containing information whether the creation of the configuration of the networking devices and/or the configuring of the networking devices was successful and/or why the creation of the configuration of the networking devices and/or the configuring of the networking devices was not successful.

15 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises receiving updated information and repeating at least a part of the method dependent on the updated information.

16 . A process network engineering system for a process network of process automation, the process network including networking devices having communication endpoints providing and/or consuming application data and data-plane elements, the process network engineering system comprises a processing device configured to:
receive communication information comprising required communication connections between application functions attached to the communication endpoints and connection requirements of the respective connections and create communication intents containing a structured definition of the required communication connections combined with their connection requirements; receive network topology information and resolve the communication endpoints by determining physical or virtual devices according to the network topology to obtain identities and/or addresses of the communication endpoints; receive timing information and further QoS requirements, and bind communication intents taking into account the timing information and further QoS requirements; and create a qualified connectivity request for the communication between the identifiable and addressable communication endpoints for obtaining configuration information according to which the communication network can be configured.

17 . A communication network, comprising:
networking and automation devices with embedded networking functions, the automation devices comprising communication endpoints providing and/or consuming application data of attached automation application functions running on the automation devices; a network controller configured to receive qualified connectivity requests from a process network engineering system; wherein the process engineering system comprises a processing device configured to:
receive communication information comprisin

Assignees

• Abb Schweiz Ag

Inventors

• Rodriguez Pablo
• Schulz Dirk

Classifications

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04L47/28

  in relation to timing considerations · CPC title

• H04L47/2475

  for supporting traffic characterised by the type of applications · CPC title

• H04L41/12 Primary

  Discovery or management of network topologies · CPC title

• Y02D30/00

  Reducing energy consumption in communication networks · CPC title