Distributed I/O control system, distributed I/O control method, and master station and slave station for distributed I/O control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9720857-B2
Application number	US-201214424835-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 4, 2012
Priority date	Sep 4, 2012
Publication date	Aug 1, 2017
Grant date	Aug 1, 2017

Abstract

In a distributed I/O control system updating data through a network between a shared memory of a slave station performing input/output of data with plural input or output devices and a shared memory of the master station corresponding to the slave station's shared memory, the master station sets group information with respect to the input or output devices, and outputs, according to a cycle table, an input request frame specifying the shared memory in the slave station and the group information, and the slave station performs input/output of data with plural input or output devices, and determines whether an input request content specified by an input request frame from the master station is all information in the shared memory in the slave station, or information corresponding to the group information, to thereby transmit output data according to the input request content.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A master station of a distributed input/output (I/O) control system which updates data through a network between a shared memory of a slave station and a shared memory of the master station, the shared memory of the master station corresponding to the shared memory of the slave station, and the slave station performs input and output operation of data with a plurality of input or output devices, the master station comprising:
a cycle table in which a communication cycle and group information are defined with respect to each of the input devices or the output devices;
an input request transmitter that outputs, according to the communication cycle, an input request frame specifying the shared memory of the slave station and the group information; and
a reproducer that reproduces, when input data received from the network is specified by the group information, data to be inputted to the shared memory of the master station, the input data received from the network having a portion omitted, the reproducer reproducing the portion omitted from the input data received from the network based on the group information.

2. A distributed input/output (I/O) control system which updates data through a network between a shared memory of a slave station and a shared memory of a master station, the shared memory of the master station corresponding to the shared memory of the slave station, and the slave station performs input and output operation of data with a plurality of input or output devices, the distributed I/O control system comprising:
the master station comprising:
a cycle table in which a communication cycle and group information are defined with respect to each of the input devices or the output devices;
an input request transmitter that outputs, according to the communication cycle, an input request frame specifying the shared memory of the slave station and the group information; and
a reproducer that reproduces, when input data received from the network is specified by the group information, data to be inputted to the shared memory of the master station, the input data received from the network having a portion omitted, the reproducer reproducing the portion omitted from the input data received from the network based on the group information; and
the slave station comprising:
a transmission data selector that determines whether an input request content specified by the input request frame from the master station includes all information in the shared memory in the slave station, or includes information corresponding to the group information, and issues a command to transmit corresponding output data; and
a compressor that compresses, when output data from the shared memory in the slave station is specified by the group information, the output data into the input data that is less than all of the data to be inputted to the shared memory of the master station.

3. The distributed I/O control system according to claim 2 , wherein the master station further comprises:
a transmission controller that refers to the cycle table to determine a timing to transmit data of the shared memory of the master station that stores output data for the output devices and issues a transmission command to the shared memory;
and the slave station further comprises:
a device-I/O-interface that outputs output data from the shared memory of the slave station to the output devices, and inputs input data from the input devices to the shared memory of the slave station;
an event table in which a specific pattern of the input data assigned as an event for each input device, and a grace time from detecting the event to outputting the input data on the generated event to the master station, are registered;
an event selector that refers, on the basis of input data through the device-I/O-interface from the input devices, to the event table to determine whether or not an event occurs and performs a timer setting operation to an event timer corresponding to the shared memory of the slave station; and
the transmission data selector of the slave station that issues a command to the shared memory of the slave station to transmit to the master station in response to an input request from the master station or an output request issued when the event timer expires.

4. The distributed I/O control system according to claim 2 , wherein the cycle table has a plurality of communication cycles, some of which are a non-integer multiple of a predetermined cycle,
the slave station further comprises a coordinator which updates input data in the shared memory of the slave station at the non-integer multiple cycle of the predetermined cycle,
and the master station further comprises a coordinator which outputs, from the shared memory of the master station updated corresponding to the input data through the network at the non-integer multiple cycle of the predetermined cycle, the input data being input to an application.

5. The distributed I/O control system according to claim 2 , wherein the cycle table has a plurality of communication cycles,
and the input request transmitter outputs an input request frame specifying all information of the shared memory of the slave station at a cycle equal to a least common multiple of the plural communication cycles, and outputs the group-information basis input request frame at cycles other than the least common multiple.

6. The distributed I/O control system according to claim 2 , wherein the master station further comprises a compressor that removes, when the output from the shared memory of the master station is specified by the group information, data unnecessary to be outputted, and
the slave station further comprises a reproducer that reproduces, when output data from the master station is specified by the group information, data so as to be inputted to the slave station's shared memory of the slave station.

7. A slave station of a distributed input/output (I/O) control system which updates data through a network between a shared memory of the slave station and a shared memory of a master station, the shared memory of the master station corresponding to the shared memory of the slave station, and the slave station performs input and output operation of data with a plurality of input or output devices, the slave station comprising:
a transmission data selector that determines whether an input request content specified by an input request frame from the master station includes all information in the shared memory in the slave station, or includes information corresponding to the group information, and issues a command to transmit the corresponding output data; and
a compressor that omits, when output data from the shared memory in the slave station is specified by the group information, a portion of the output data to generate data to be inputted to the shared memory of the master station, the portion of the output data omitted being reproducible from the data to be inputted to the shared memory of the master station based on the group information.

8. A distributed input/output (I/O) control method which updates data through a network between a shared memory of a slave station and a shared memory of a master station, the shared memory of the master station corresponding to the shared memory of the slave station, and the slave station performs input and output operation of data with a plurality of input or output devices, the distributed I/O control method comprising:
outputting, from the master station, an input request frame specifying shared memory of the slave station and group information, according to a communication cycle and the group information defined with respect to each of the input devices or the output devices, the

Assignees

• Morita Keisuke
• Tsuji Hiroyuki
• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Morita Keisuke
• Tsuji Hiroyuki

Classifications

• G06F13/1663

  Access to shared memory · CPC title

• H04L12/4035

  in which slots of a TDMA packet structure are assigned based on a contention resolution carried out at a master unit (TDM/TDMA multiplex systems per se H04J3/1694; hybrid switching systems H04L12/64) · CPC title

• G06F13/128 Primary

  for dedicated transfers to a network (for protocol converters G06F13/387) · CPC title

• G06F13/364

  using independent requests or grants, e.g. using separated request and grant lines · CPC title