Abstract
The physical distribution of equipment and machinery on an industrial site makes it particularly suitable for implementing distributed computer control systems based on the use of microcomputers. A communication system is needed to allow cooperation and coordination between the microcomputer stations forming the control system. This paper identifies the communication requirements for this class of applications and then gives an overview of the CONIC Architecture, developed at Imperial College for Distributed Computer Control Systems (DCCS). The paper concentrates on the CONIC Communication System which was developed to support this distributed computer architecture, and uses the framework of the ISO Open Systems Reference model to describe the communication system.
The CONIC Communication System supports a network topology consisting of interconnected subnets, where the subnets can be serial highways, loops or even point-to-point transmission lines. It can provide a variety of message transfer services, including both reliable virtual circuits and a datagrams. It allows automatic rerouting round failures and provides a distributed mechanism for updating routing tables.
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Sloman, M.S. (1983). The CONIC Communication System for Distributed Process Control. In: Schindler, S., Spaniol, O. (eds) Kommunikation in Verteilten Systemen — Anwendungen und Betrieb. Informatik-Fachberichte, vol 60. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68829-4_35
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68829-4_35
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