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Time-constrained services: a framework for using real-time web services in industrial automation

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Abstract

The use of web services in industrial automation, e.g. in fully automated production processes like car manufacturing, promises simplified interaction among the manufacturing devices due to standardized protocols and increased flexibility with respect to process implementation and reengineering. Moreover, the adoption of web services as a seamless communication backbone within the overall industrial enterprise has additional benefits, such as simplified interaction with suppliers and customers (i.e. horizontal integration) and avoidance of a break in the communication paradigm within the enterprise (i.e. vertical integration). The Time-Constrained Services (TiCS) framework is a development and execution environment that empowers automation engineers to develop, deploy, publish, compose, and invoke time-constrained web services. TiCS consists of four functional layers—tool support layer, real-time infrastructural layer, real-time service layer, and hardware layer—which contain several components to meet the demands of a web service based automation infrastructure. This article gives an overview of the TiCS framework. More precisely, the general design considerations and an architectural blueprint of the TiCS framework are presented. Subsequently, selected key components of the TiCS framework are discussed in detail: the SOAP4PLC engine for equipping programmable logic controllers with a web service interface, the SOAP4IPC engine for processing web services in real-time on industrial PCs, the WS-TemporalPolicy language for describing time constraints, and the TiCS Modeler for composing time-constrained web services into a time-constrained BPEL4WS workflow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Marburg, Hans-Meerwein-Str. 3, 35032, Marburg, Germany

    Markus Mathes, Christoph Stoidner, Roland Schwarzkopf, Steffen Heinzl, Tim Dörnemann & Bernd Freisleben

  2. Department of Applied Computer Science, University of Applied Sciences Fulda, Marquardstr. 35, 36039, Fulda, Germany

    Helmut Dohmann

Authors
  1. Markus Mathes
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  2. Christoph Stoidner
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  3. Roland Schwarzkopf
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  4. Steffen Heinzl
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  5. Tim Dörnemann
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  6. Helmut Dohmann
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  7. Bernd Freisleben
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Correspondence to Markus Mathes.

Additional information

This research was partially funded by an IBM Real-time Innovation Award 2008.

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Mathes, M., Stoidner, C., Schwarzkopf, R. et al. Time-constrained services: a framework for using real-time web services in industrial automation. SOCA 3, 239–262 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11761-009-0050-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11761-009-0050-y

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