System and methodology providing namespace and protocol management in an industrial controller environment

A method to aggregate namespace data in an industrial control system, comprising:

• at least one of a polling, broadcasting or multicasting for network addresses of industrial controllers, the network addresses specifying a namespace and geographic location of a respective industrial controller;
• reporting the network addresses of the industrial controllers, the reporting including at least one of:
• responding to the at least one of polling, broadcasting, and multicasting for network addresses;
• reporting at least one of a permanent address and a temporary address;
• reporting a location-based address;
• or performing a registration procedure to receive a different network address;
• and
• automatically launching activities to the industrial controllers based on the network address.

A system to aggregate namespace data in an industrial control system, comprising:

• means for at least one polling, broadcasting or multicasting for URL addresses of industrial controllers, the network addresses specifying a namespace and geographic location of a respective industrial controller;
• means for reporting the URL addresses of the industrial controllers, the reporting including at least one of:
• means for responding to the polling, broadcasting, and multicasting of URL addresses;
• means for reporting at least one of a permanent address and a temporary address;
• means for determining a location-based address;
• or
• means for performing a registration procedure to receive a different URL address;
• and
• means for automatically launching activities to the industrial controllers based on the network address.