Performance of MAP in the remote operation of a CNC

A major issue for the users of the Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP) is its performance in servicing time-critical applications. The author describes an experiment in which a computerized numerical controller (CNC) is remotely operated using MAP. A set of critical timing parameters is defined, a performance analysis of the system from the user's point of view is carried out, and a comparison with other similar systems is made. The transfer time between two front-end processors, implementing the seven MAP layers, for a 100-byte-long message is found to be about 18 ms, and the transfer time for the same message between two user processes on the hosts is about 40 ms.<
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