Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/01—Protocols
  • H04L67/06—Protocols specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L67/00—Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications
  • H04L67/01—Protocols
  • H04L67/12—Protocols specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
  • H04L67/125—Protocols specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks involving control of end-device applications over a network
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
  • H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
  • H04L43/08—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
  • H04L43/0805—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters by checking availability
  • H04L43/0817—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters by checking availability by checking functioning

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a monitoring system comprising an upper network provide with a monitoring terminal and a lower network provided with a monitored obj ect, and more particularly relates to a data transfer device and a method of transmitting data between the upper network and the lower network.
• Fig. 1 is an exemplary diagram showing the structure of a monitoring system comprising an upper network 100 and a lower network 130.
• the upper network 1 10 includes one or more management terminals 1 13 such as an upper server 1 1 1 and a monitoring PC 1 12.
• the lower network 130 includes, for example, a supervisor 13 1 formed with a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), a monitoring subsystem server 132 and a monitored obj ect 133 etc .
• a data transfer device 120 is interposed between the upper network 1 10 and the lower network 130.
• the lower network 130 includes at least one monitoring subsystem
• the monitoring subsystem 130- 1 may represent an illumination monitoring subsystem
• the monitoring subsystem 130-2 may represent an atomization monitoring subsystem
• the monitoring subsystem 130-3 may represent a water level monitoring subsystem.
• the monitored obj ects 133 - 1 - 133 -3 may respectively represent a digital interface (DI/DO), an analog interface (AI/AO) and a metering (PI) for monitoring, e . g. temperature, water level, humidity, atomizing switch ON/OFF state, and so on.
• DI/DO digital interface
• AI/AO analog interface
• PI metering
• each of the monitoring subsystems 130- 1 - 130-3 communicates with the upper network 1 10 via corresponding data transfer devices 120- 1 - 120-3.
• the monitoring system 100 As shown in Fig. 1 , there are a plurality of types of lower communication protocol for communicating with the lower network 130 and a plurality of types of upper communication protocol for communicating with the upper network 1 10, such as MEWTOCOL, Modbus, Bacnet and the like . Therefore, during the practical application of the monitoring system, it will encounter a problem of data conversion between the lower communication protocol and the upper communication protocol. If a new data conversion device and method need to be correspondingly developed every time when there is a new upper communication protocol and/or a new lower communication protocol, the cost for repeating development becomes too high.
• a presently available monitoring system can not be completely developed until both the upper network and the lower network are determined with regard to details thereof.
• the obj ect in the lower network needs to be determined through competitive bidding, which takes a long time, and there are a plurality of products, i. e . the obj ects of the same type in the market, so it takes time to determine whether the product has functions satisfying requirements of a proj ect, and so on. For these reasons, it is practically difficult to determine the lower network quickly. If the system has to be developed after the lower network is determined, the whole development period would become necessarily too long.
• the present invention aims to provide a data transfer device and method thereof for transmitting data between an upper network and a lower network of a monitoring system, so that development of the upper side of the monitoring system can be carried out separately from the lower side, which enables to develop the upper side prior to the determination of the lower network or the lower communication protocol.
• a data transfer device adapted in use to be interposed between the lower network and the upper network.
• the lower network includes a supervisor which is connected to at least one monitored obj ect in the lower network for monitoring status data indicative of a condition of the monitored obj ect.
• the upper network includes a management terminal configured to acquire management information of the monitored obj ect.
• the data transfer device comprises : a memory configured to store property data of the monitored obj ect; a lower communication section configured to communicate with the supervisor in the lower network for retrieving therefrom the status data; a data processing section configured to identify the monitored obj ect based on the status data received at the lower communication section, read the property data from said memory of thus identified monitored obj ect, and generate management information which is a combination of said status data and the property data; and
• an upper communication section configured to communicate with the management terminal in the upper network for transmitting the management information to the upper network.
• a data transfer method of transferring data between the lower network and the upper network includes the supervisor which is connected to at least one monitored obj ect in the lower network for monitoring status data indicative of a condition of the monitored obj ect.
• the upper network includes a management terminal configured to acquire management information of the monitored obj ect from the lower network for processing the management information.
• the data transfer method comprises :
• management information including the whole information of a monitored obj ect is generated based on status data received from the lower network and property data of the monitored obj ect stored in advance . For instance, management information is generated by appending the property data onto the status data.
• the property data of the monitored obj ect is separately stored in the memory, it is possible to develop a communication module for the upper network in advance in a case where the organization structure and apparatus configuration of the lower network is not yet determined, and after the structure and configuration of the lower network are determined, corresponding property data is set in the memory so that the management information including the whole information of the monitored obj ect can be generated based on the property data and the status data.
• development of the upper side can be carried out even if the lower network is not yet determined, and the whole monitoring system can be completely established within a short time after the lower network is determined. That is to say, the development period of the whole monitoring system can be effectively shortened.
• the present invention further provides the monitoring system comprising:
• the lower network including the supervisor which is connected to a monitored obj ect in the lower network for monitoring status data indicative of a condition of the monitored obj ect;
• the upper network including the management terminal configured to acquire the management information of the monitored obj ect from the lower network for processing the management information;
• the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium holding a program which is executed by a computer to perform the data transfer method mentioned above .
• Fig. 1 is an exemplary diagram showing the structure of a monitoring system comprising an upper network and a lower network.
• Fig. 2 is an exemplary block diagram showing the data transfer device according to the present invention.
• Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship among the status data, property data of a monitored obj ect and management information in the data transfer device according to the present invention.
• Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating that a data transfer device performs data transfer process from the lower to the upper according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
• Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating that a data transfer device performs data transfer process from the lower to the upper according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
• Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating that a data transfer device performs data transfer process from the upper to the lower according to the third embodiment of the present invention.
• Fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating that a data transfer device performs data transfer process from the upper to the lower according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention.
• Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating value AD/DA conversion during the data transfer process by the data transfer device according to the present invention.
• Fig. 9 is an exemplary block diagram showing the data processing section of the data transfer device according to the present invention.
• Such software may include any type of computer instruction or computer executable code located within a memory device and/or transmitted as electronic signals over a system bus or network.
• Software that implements the functionality associated with components described herein may comprise a single instruction, or many instructions, and may be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several memory devices .
• the present invention aims to improve the data transfer device 120 disposed between the upper network 1 10 and the lower network 130 so that it can perform flexible conversion between a plurality of types of upper communication protocols and lower communication protocols, thereby reducing the cost for repeating development upon advent of a new upper/lower communication protocol and reducing the development period of the whole monitoring system.
• Data transfer device 120 according to the present invention is explained in detail below with reference to the exemplary block diagram of Fig. 2.
• data transfer device 120 disposed between the upper network 1 10 and the lower network 130, comprises : a memory 124 for storing property data 220 of one or more monitored obj ects respectively associated with one supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 ; an upper communication section 121 configured to communicate with a management terminal 1 13 in the upper network 1 10 so as to be capable of transmitting management information 210 to the upper network 1 10 and/or receiving a control request 3 10 for setting the lower side from the upper network 1 10.
• the setting to the lower side includes modifying the property data of the monitored obj ect and controlling the monitored obj ect by the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130.
• the data transfer device 120 further includes a lower communication section 123 configured to communicate with the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 so as to be capable of receiving status data 230 indicative of a condition of the monitored obj ect from the lower network 130 and/or transmitting a control instruction 320 for controlling the monitored obj ect to the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 ; and a data processing section 122 for processing the status data 230 received through the lower communication section 123 based on the property data 220 of the monitored obj ect stored in the memory 124 to generate management information 210 including the whole information of the monitored obj ect needed by the upper network 1 10, and/or processing the control request received through the upper communication section 121 to perform desired setting.
• a lower communication section 123 configured to communicate with the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 so as to be capable of receiving status data 230 indicative of a condition of the monitored obj ect from the lower network 130 and/or transmitting a control instruction
• data processing section 122 In view of the data flow direction shown in Fig. 2, data processing section 122 generates management information 210 based on the status data 230 inputted from the lower communication section 123 and the property data 220 of the monitored obj ect stored in the memory 124. Since the status data 230 received from the lower network 130 via the lower communication protocol contains a different number of data items from the management information 210 transmitted to the upper network 1 10 via the upper communication protocol, the data processing section 122 preferably may, as shown in Fig . 3 , append the property data 220 of the monitored obj ect corresponding to the status data 230 to the status data 230 to constitute management information 210.
• the data items are information items associated with the current values, for example, they may be name, description, metric unit, maximum value, minimum value, occurrence time, index of whether it is required to report the change of status or not, etc .
• “current value + item 1 ⁇ M” corresponds to the status data 230 acquired from the lower network 130
• “item (M+ 1 ) ⁇ N” corresponds to the property data 220 associated with the monitored obj ect stored in the memory 124
• “current value + items 1 ⁇ N” is the management information 210 (i. e . , the complete information of the monitored obj ect to be transmitted to the upper network 1 10) obtained by appending the property data 220 to the status data 230, wherein, N and M both are positive integer, and N is larger than M.
• the status data of a monitored obj ect is indicative of a water level being monitored at the lower network, and includes a water-level value, a water-level warning value, time for collecting the water-level value, period of collecting the water-level values .
• the property data associated with the monitored obj ect includes a name of the monitored obj ect, a description of the monitored obj ect, a metric unit of the water-level value, an address of the monitored obj ect, a status of the monitored obj ect (the status of the monitored obj ect is determined according to the water-level value and the condition of communicating with the lower network), and an index of whether or not it is required to initiatively report the status change of the monitored obj ect.
• the ten data items form the whole information of the monitored obj ect needed by the upper network. Because both the name and the description of the monitored obj ect may contain Chinese/Japanese characters, they cannot be directly obtained from the lower network according to the lower communication protocol . Therefore, only after identifying a monitored obj ect based on values of data items 1 -4, values of data items 5 - 10 can be read by the data processing section 122 from the memory 124 based on the information of the identified monitored obj ect (e . g. , the number and type etc . of the monitored obj ect) .
• the identified monitored obj ect e . g. , the number and type etc . of the monitored obj ect
• Fig. 4-Fig. 5 illustrate a data transfer process from the lower to the upper network, which refers to the process of acquiring the management information, particularly refers to that the data transfer device 120 processes the status data obtained from the lower network 130 and then transmits it to the upper network 1 10.
• FIG. 7 illustrate a data transfer process from the upper to the lower network, which refers to the process of performing setting according to the control request from the upper network 1 10, including that the data transfer device 120 performs modification to the property data which is stored in the memory 124 of itself and transmits a control instruction to the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 for performing controlling to a monitored obj ect.
• Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the first embodiment of data transfer process from the lower to the upper.
• the management terminal 1 13 in the upper network 1 10 sends to the lower side a query request 240 of acquiring management information by polling, so as to manage all supervisors 13 1 in the lower network 130.
• the lower communication section 123 communicates with the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 to receive the status data indicative of the condition of the monitored obj ect from the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 (S02) and transmits the status data to the data processing section 122.
• the data processing section 122 analyzes the status data inputted from the lower communication section 123 so as to identify the monitored obj ect corresponding to the status data (S03) .
• the process flow for step S03 may be, the data processing section 122 operates to determine the correspondence relationship between the address accompanied with the query request received in step S01 and the status data, so as to determine the source address of the status data according to the correspondence relationship and thereby identify the monitored obj ect in association with the status data based on the source address .
• identifying the monitored obj ect may be determining the type and number of the monitored obj ect.
• the type of the monitored obj ect includes DI (digital input), DO (digital output), MI (multiple input), MO (multiple output), AI (analog input), AO (analog output) and PI (metering), etc ..
• the number of the monitored obj ect is used for representing the position of the monitored obj ect among all the monitored obj ects of the same type . That is, one monitored obj ect can be uniquely determined based on the type and number.
• the data processing section 122 reads property data of the monitored obj ect thus identified from the memory 124 according to the determined type and number of the monitored obj ect (S04), generates the management information including the whole information of the monitored obj ect based on the status data and the read property data (S05), and transmits the generated monitoring information to the upper communication section 121 .
• the data processing section 122 of the data transfer device 120 may include an analyzer 1221 , a property data reader 1222 and a management information composer 1223 as shown in Fig. 9.
• the analyzer 1221 is configured to analyze the status data 230 from the lower network 130, so as to identify the monitored obj ect in association with the status data.
• the property data reader 1222 is configured to read, on the basis of the information such as the type and the number of the monitored obj ect thus identified, the property data 220 for this monitored obj ect from the memory 124.
• the management information composer 1223 is configured to compose the status data 230 and the property data 220, so as to generate the management information 210 including the whole information of all data items for the monitored obj ect.
• the upper communication section 121 communicates with the management terminal 1 13 in the upper network 1 10 to transmit the management information inputted from the data processing section 122 to the upper network 1 10 (S06) . So far, a routine of the data transfer process from the lower to the upper ends .
• the data transfer process from the lower to the upper is started upon the sending of the query request of acquiring the management information by the upper network 1 10.
• the data transfer device 120 may be designed to additionally include a function of performing a data transfer process from the lower to the upper when the status data received from the lower network 130 satisfies a predetermined criterion.
• Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the second embodiment of data transfer process from the lower to the upper with respect to this situation.
• step S01 is omitted, and steps S03 1 and S032 are added between step S03 and step S04.
• steps S03 1 and S032 are added between step S03 and step S04.
• step S01 because of the omittance of step S01 , the execution condition of the second embodiment no longer depends on the receipt of the query request of acquiring the management information by the upper network 1 10.
• the data processing section is enabled to promptly send warning information to the upper side each time the status data meets the predetermined criterion, and is therefore capable of instantaneously responding to various emergent conditions without requiring to wait for the timing of polling.
• the data processing section 122 processes the status data (e . g. , performing data conversion and so on) according to the information of the monitored obj ect thus identified (e . g. , the type and number of the monitored obj ect), so as to determine the condition of the monitored obj ect (S03 1 ) . Then, it is determined whether or not the condition of the monitored obj ect meets the predetermined criterion defining a hazard condition requiring an emergent attention (S032) .
• the processing directly ends .
• the predetermined criterion defining the hazard condition requiring the emergent attention includes that the water lever value of the monitored obj ect exceeds a predefined threshold, the communication with the monitored obj ect becomes interrupted, the supervisor 13 1 fails to monitor the monitored obj ect, or the like .
• the data transfer process from the upper to the lower mainly refers to the setting process according to the control request 3 10 sent from the upper network 1 10.
• Fig. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the third embodiment of the data transfer process from the upper to the lower.
• data processing section 122 analyzes the received control request to identify the monitored obj ect corresponding to the control request (S 12), and then reads the property data of this identified monitored obj ect from the memory 124 and determines the setting content based on the control request and the read property data (S 13) . Consequently, a corresponding setting can be performed on the identified monitored obj ect based on the information of this monitored obj ect (for example, performing value conversion etc .) and the determined setting content (S 14) .
• the whole information of the monitored obj ect (corresponding to the management information) includes data items associated with the monitored obj ect in the lower network 130 (corresponding to the status data) and the property data of the monitored obj ect, it is necessary, upon the receipt of the control request from the upper network 1 10, to determine whether the setting content relates to the property data of the monitored obj ect or the data items associated with the monitored obj ect in the lower network 130, and to perform a corresponding setting process in accordance with different setting contents .
• Fig. 7 illustrates a specific processing flow of step S 14 in Fig. 6 to describe in detail the corresponding setting process performed in accordance with different setting contents .
• the data processing section 122 of the data transfer device 120 operates to perform modification to the property data for the identified monitored obj ect which is stored in the memory 124 according to the determined setting content (S 145) .
• the data processing section 122 of the data transfer device 120 operates to transmit the setting content to the corresponding supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 via the lower communication section 123.
• the data processing section processes the setting content (for example, performing value conversion etc . ) according to the information of the monitored obj ect (e . g. , the type and number of the monitored obj ect) (S 142) to generate a setting content receivable for the lower network 130.
• the data processing section operates to read the property data of the monitored obj ect stored in the memory 124 based on the information of the monitored obj ect (e . g.
• the type and number of the monitored obj ect) to identify the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 associated with the monitored obj ect, namely determine the specific supervisor 13 1 as the operated target of the control request in the lower network 130 (S 143 ) .
• the data processing section 122 operates to send the control instruction to the determined supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 via the lower communication section 123 (S 144) .
• the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 is configured to have an additional function of controlling the monitored obj ect, such as setting the parameter of the monitored obj ect, in a manner designated by the control instruction.
• the control instruction includes the processed setting content to be directed to the determined supervisor 13 1 , and is defined in a format similar to the management information but devoid of the property data.
• the management terminal 1 13 in the upper network 1 10 is configured to efficiently control the devices at the lower side by means of the data transfer process from the upper to the lower, as shown in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7. Besides, after the data processing section 122 analyzes the control request from the upper network 1 10 based on the property data of the monitored obj ect stored in the memory 124, it operates not only to perform modification to the property data which is stored in the memory 124 of the data transfer device 120 itself, but also to control the monitored obj ect by the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network.
• the data transfer device 120 is preferably configured to feed back a setting result to the upper network 1 10 via the upper communication section 121 (S 15), after the setting is finished.
• the data processing section 122 of the data transfer device 120 may further include a setting content determiner 1224, a property data modifier 1225 and a control instruction generator 1226 as shown in Fig. 9.
• the analyzer 1221 in the data processing section 122 is further configured to analyze the control request 3 10 from the upper network 1 10, so as to identify the monitored obj ect in association with the control request, and on the basis of the information of the monitored obj ect thus identified (such as the type and the number of this monitored obj ect), the property data reader 1222 in the data processing section 122 reads the property data 220 for this monitored obj ect from the memory 124.
• the setting content determiner 1224 is configured to determine, the setting content accompanied with the control request, and further configured to judge, based on the read property data of the identified monitored obj ect, whether the setting content relates to the data item which is stored as the property data in the memory or the data item which is received as the status data from the lower network 130.
• the property data modifier 1225 and the control instruction generator 1226 are configured to operate according to the determination and judgment regarding the setting content. More detailed, when the setting content is determined as relating to the property data, the property data modifier 1225 modifies the property data stored in the memory 124 according to the setting content.
• control instruction generator 1226 when the setting content is determined as relating to the status data, the control instruction generator 1226 generates the control instruction 320 according to the setting content, so as to enable the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130 to control the monitored obj ect thus identified.
• the memory 124 of the data transfer device 120 is configured to store value conversion information associated with the type of the monitored obj ect
• the data processing section 122 is configured to convert the value of the received status data into a value of a form applicable to the management terminal 1 13 in the upper network 1 10 by using associated value conversion information according to the type of the monitored obj ect, and convert the value in the received control request into a value of a form applicable to the supervisor 13 1 in the lower network 130.
• the value conversion information stored in the memory 124 includes a value conversion relation between the digital value and the analog value .
• the memory 124 stores two setting files, one storing digital value information, and the other storing analog value information.
• the data processing section 122 performs AD/DA conversion based on the value conversion relation between the information stored in these two files .
• Fig. 8 is a diagram illustrating AD/DA conversion during the data transfer process by the data transfer device 120.
• Ax A mm+ - — -
• D max- D min wherein, Amin represents a minimum analog value of the value for a data item, Amax represents a maximum analog value of the value for a data item, Dmin represents a minimum digital value of the value for a data item, and Dmax represents a maximum digital value of the value for a data item.
• a conversion is made to convert an analog value Ax in the setting content obtained through analysis of the control request from the upper network 1 10 into digital value Dx, wherein a like conversion calculation is done based on the oblique line shown in Fig. 8.
• the data conversion information i. e . a value conversion relation is stored in the memory 124 in association with the type of the monitored obj ect, and the data processing section 122 is configured to perform the value conversion on the status data and the control request (namely the setting contents) by using the associated data conversion information according to the type of the monitored obj ect, .
• the data transfer device is capable of sending the human-readable management information to the upper side, and is further capable of transmitting the setting information to the lower side .
• the data processing section 122 may preferably further include a converter for performing the value conversion on the status data and/or the setting content, so as to enable the data transfer device 120 to perform data transmission in a manner matching the upper/lower communication protocol.

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• 2010
  • 2010-04-02 CN CN2010101398183A patent/CN102215376A/zh active Pending
  • 2010-04-27 WO PCT/CN2010/072258 patent/WO2011120244A1/en active Application Filing
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