Virtual Automation Network – problems to be solved

Peter Neumann Institut fuer Automation und Kommunikation Magdeburg Steinfeldstraße 3, 39179 Barleben Germany

Summary

Motivation

Future distributed computer control systems (DCS) require more mechanisms for the locally remote distribution of automation functions by various reasons, mainly to enable remote control, configuring, commissioning, parameterisation, maintenance of DCSs as well as to include remote experts or external knowledge for the plant operation and maintenance.

The resulting DCS has to offer location-based and context-sensitive services to guarantee suitable local and remote functions for different user needs and requires real-time data transmission. Additionally, the safety and security aspects become more important.

Virtual Automation Network VAN

A VAN is a heterogeneous network consisting of wired and wireless local Area Network, the Internet, and wired or/ and wireless telecommunication systems. It means that remotely distributed application programmes co-operating to fulfil a control application are connected via this VAN accessed by remote connection endpoints. The end-to-end connection via a heterogeneous network has to guarantee the privacy, required real-time behaviour, security, and safety. Since there are stronger requirements within the automation domain, the virtual Private Networks VPN known from the office domain do not offer enough required mechanisms. It strongly limits the use of these systems within the automation domain.

Main gaps

The main gaps result from the extended requirements to introduce the Wide Area Networks into a Virtual Automation Network with all well-known behavioural requests (real-time, safety, security, location awareness). Tese gaps are: Real-time behaviour of heterogeneous networks; Functional safety over heterogeneous networks; Security over heterogeneous networks

The presentation will discuss the needed mechanisms to bridge these gaps and to be offered by heterogeneous networks.

Curriculum Vitae

Peter Neumann was born in 1941 in Sorau, Germany. He received the diploma degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Dresden and the Ph. D. degree in Control Engineering from the Technical University of Merseburg, GDR, in 1967 and 1981, respectively. From 1970 to 1981 he was with a R&D department and finally the head of the R&D department at the automation industry were he was responsible for development of Distributed Computer Control Systems. In 1981 he received the Habilitation degree (venia legendi) for Control Engineering from the Technical University of Chemnitz, GDR. In 1881, Peter Neumann was appointed as a full professor for the area "Control Systems" at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg . In 1990, Peter Neumann founded the Institute of Control Engineering at this university and became its head up to 1994. In 1991 he founded the associated institute “ifak” (Institut fuer Automation and Kommunikation Magdeburg), an applied research institute headed by him.