Towards a Cyber-Physical Architecture for Industrial Systems via Real-Time Java Technology

Nowadays, there is a trend in industrial systems towards the use of common-off-the-shelf (COTS) components to develop applications which interact with open systems. This trend includes among others the use of high-level languages, such as Java, and Internet protocols (TCP-IP, HTTP, and Web Services). However, although many industrial systems use these technologies at their business layers, they are far from offering a homogeneous programming platform in their most internal infrastructures. This paper contributes to change the current practice introducing a real-time Java-centric approach for industrial systems. In the core of the architecture, special entities (named DCP Java-nodes) equipped with real-time technology offer predictable interoperation between the industrial field and the Internet. In addition to the architecture, the paper also describes an initial assessment on the performance that may be expected from this kind of infrastructure.