Fault tolerant information distribution in partitioned manufacturing networks

Distributed systems that maintain data communication through a data network always run the risk of having network partitioning. One application of a distributed system is computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), which depends on two different types of network, namely the data network and the material network. A network partitioning in CIM may lead to a stop in the production. The negative effects of network partitioning in a CIM system can be mitigated through the introduction of data and material buffers. Nevertheless, when the partition of the data network remains for a longer period of time, the usefulness of the buffers will be reduced as they eventually will be emptied or invalidated. A way to maintain the distribution of information between different data network partitions is to use the material network as an extra medium for the data transportation, as well as for the material transportation. This approach increments fault-tolerance concerning data network partitioning in CIM systems.<
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