Peer-to-Peer, Distributed Control
Its Importance In Modern Plant Automation
T
he concept of distributed con-
trol has been around for sever-
al decades, but the term has often
been coopted to describe systems in
which many PLCs or process con-
trollers have been used in a serv-
er/client configuration. However,
such typically heirachial connec-
tions do not provide the flexibility
and versatility of devices connect-
ed in a peer-to-peer environment
where parallel processing between
devices enables unrestricted con-
nectivity and almost unlimited ex-
pandability.
Peer-to-peer connectivity is much
more complex than server/client
topologies and requires a sophis-
ticated operating system to ensure
the deterministic behaveour es-
sential in reliable control systems.
However, as microprocessors have
become more powerful and less ex-
pensive, the idea has become both
feasible and viable.
As we enter a new era of plant auto-
mation, smart devices and sensors
require the ability to talk to oth-
er intelligent entities, human and
inanimate, to carry out their jobs
more efficiently, and this is where
the conventional PLC, server/cli-
ent topology introduces a road
block. Unless the required com-
munications connection has been
pre-programmed into the PLC, the
poor lowly slave device is trapped
and cannot tell the master what’s
going on!
The unique Bardac drive.web dis-
tributed control technology pro-
vides a peer-to-peer environment
in which any device can communi-
cate directly with any other device.
Data transmission between devices
is therefore both unimpeded and
inherently faster. Even though
the individual devices run asyn-
chronously, the operating system
ensures both stable system wide
program thread control and pre-
cise realtime data using smart time
stamping. All drives, programma-
ble controllers, i/o controllers, etc.,
are both Internet accessible and in-
corporate a full featured program-
mable control capability, so as your
system gets bigger, each extra com-
ponent adds more parallel process-
ing capacity and you never run out
of steam!
ENTERPRISE
LEVEL
secure VPN connection. The
important thing about the drive.
web distributed control concept
is that any device in the entire
enterprise can talk to any other
device (subject to the appropriate
security access).
Two other interesting drive.web
products are the speedy control-
ler and the savvy tools.
MACHINE
LEVEL
At the basic machine level all com-
ponents are connected by an Eth-
ernet LAN, and the whole system
can be accessed either via the LAN
or any of the device USB ports.
savvyPanel HMI configurations
reside in the devices for easy iOS or
Android mobile access.
The speedy is a
minute
proces-
sor (less than half
the size of your
thumb) that easily
embeds into most
third party drives to provide
both onboard programmable
control functions and the peer-
to-peer, distributed control ca-
pability, thereby eliminating the
potentially isolated nature of the
drive.web technology.
The savvy platform independent
tools provide seamless, system
wide programming and control.
PLANT LEVEL
Local engineering, production and
SCADA access can easily be inte-
faced to the machine system and
complete, safe access provided to
remote enterprise locations via a
drive.web’s versatility, ease of use
and inclusive nature will ensure
its ready acceptance into the In-
dustrial Internet of Things arena.
email drive.web automation
Bardac Corporation. bardac.com
☎️ USA 410 604 3400
☎️ UK 01924 475 479