An approach to make MMS real-time [manufacturing automation]

This paper addresses the issue of time in the manufacturing message specification (MMS) protocol. MMS is used in industrial environments in which timing constraints are very important, whereas the MMS protocol deals in an insignificant way with time. This paper introduces MMS in real-time environments, stressing its real-time features and its weaknesses. Next, the authors propose an approach to include timing specifications in MMS. This paper presents the real-time requirements for MMS objects, and provides the extensions to the objects and services.