Java and Jini technologies as a vehicle to construct a unified control engineering tool and extend the real time aspects of a control network

This paper proposes a new approach to address the issues of isolation and lack of homogeneity of control network segments located within dispersed industrial plants, particularly from the control systems engineer's point of view. One can anticipate that Java and Jini technologies will contribute to the promotion of convergence with respect to other current approaches, like function block and device descriptions. Furthermore, this practice will lead to the conveyance of the natural characteristics of control networks, i.e. deterministic transmissions, to the IP-based technology, leading to the transparent bridging of heterogeneous control networks through a QoS adaptable and scalable IP data pipe. In this paper, the authors focus on the development of a multifunctional-networking device (MFND), acting both as an application gateway and a control network to IP router and on the creation of a unified environment by overcoming the lack of interoperability between fieldbuses.