Gateway having an input/output scanner
AssigneeSchneider Automation Inc.
InventorRonald H. Naismith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A gateway having an input/output scanner is disclosed. The gateway includes a local area network interface, a serial interface, and a processor configured to provide protocol conversion between the local area network interface and the serial interface. Further, an input/output scanner module is operatively connected to the serial interface and configured to poll the slave device.
Claims17
A gateway for communication between a main control device connected to a local area network and a plurality of slave devices connected to a local serial bus in an industrial automation control network, the gateway comprising:
- a first interface for communication with the main control device over the local area network;
- a second interface for communication with a plurality of slave devices over the local serial bus;
- and,
- an I/O scanner processor configured to poll an I/O state of each of the plurality of slave devices over the second interface, to process the I/O state information received from polling each slave device and determine whether to transmit information to the main control device based on the I/O state information, and to occasionally transmit such information to the main control device over the first interface based on such determination, thereby offloading the slave device I/O scan processing from the main control device to the gateway.
An industrial automation control system comprising:
- a master PLC connected to a local area network;
- a plurality of slave PLCs connected to a local serial bus, the plurality of slave PLCs each having an I/O device;
- and
- a gateway connected to the local area network and the local serial bus, the gateway configured to provide protocol conversion between the local area network interface and the local serial bus, the gateway further comprising an I/O scanner configured to poll an I/O state of the plurality of slave PLC I/O devices, to process the I/O state information received from polling each slave I/O device and determine whether to notify the master PLC based on the I/O state information, and to occasionally notify the master PLC based on such determination, thereby offloading the slave PLC I/O scan processing from the master PLC to the gateway and reducing the I/O scan time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.