US 9,524,259 B2Granted

Method for operating an automation device to reduce dead time on account of a physical interruption in a ring or a failed unit

AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft

InventorsThomas Grosch, Jürgen Laforsch, Albert Renschler

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Abstract

A method for operating an automation device having a CPU module that is configured to effect read or write access to local peripherals that are each provided with two interface modules that are each wired up in ring form to an input/output controller, wherein peripheral access operations are executed via one of the rings or via both rings, and wherein a redundancy manager that is provided for each ring is used to logically interrupt the respective ring in a normal mode and to initiate ring reconfiguration for this ring in the event of a physical ring interruption so as to provide a basis for allowing peripheral access operations during the actual period of this ring reconfiguration.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A method for operating an automation device including a CPU module which is configured to effect read or write access to local peripherals that are each provided with two interface modules and wired up in ring form to an input/output controller the method comprising:

executing peripheral access operations via one of (i) an individual ring of two rings and (ii) both rings of the two rings;
logically interrupting, by a redundancy manager provided for each individual ring of the two rings, a respective ring in a normal mode and initiating ring reconfiguration for the respective ring in an event of a physical ring interruption;
executing the peripheral access operations for at least one of the local peripherals via another ring of the two individual rings;
and
executing via the other of the two individual rings the peripheral access operations for at least one of the local peripherals in an event of the ring reconfiguration being initiated for one of the rings.

2 more elements

An automation device comprising:

local peripherals each provided with two interface modules;
a CPU module configured to effect read or write access to the local peripherals;
at least two input/output controllers each wired up in ring form to one module of the two interface modules of the local peripherals, the CPU module executing peripheral access operations via one of (i) two individual rings and (ii) both individual rings;
a redundancy manager for each ring, which logically interrupts a respective ring of the two individual rings in a normal mode, the redundancy manager being configured to lift the logical interruption in an event of a physical ring interruption and to initiate ring reconfiguration for the respective ring of the two individual rings;
wherein the automation device is configured to:
execute the peripheral access operations for at least one of the local peripherals via another ring of the two individual rings in the event of the ring reconfiguration requiring initiation for one of the two rings.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.