Distributed architecture for real-time cyber-physical system, time-sensitive networks

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) are a network of interacting physical and computer based sub-systems designed to improve the overall performance of complex systems by automatic operation, i.e., they are hierarchical, distributed (networked) control systems capable of generic “self-” properties, such as self-optimization to reduce the effects of disturbance and for adaptation to changing environment, self-configuration for manageability and resilience, etc. Currently, the target application area for CPS are autonomous vehicles, smart infrastructure like smart cities, and Industry 4.0. It is clearly visible that these application areas will be served by a large number of more or less integrated but individual applications, sharing infrastructure using a distributed architecture including networking, edge computing nodes, sensors and actuators. The trend will be similar that was observed in generic server infrastructure in the IT field. Some years ago IT services were assigned to individual server computers (mail server, WEB server) resulting in complex maintenance and low reliability. However, services run in private or public Cloud infrastructures today, where they are assigned to server machines in a dynamical and automatic way reducing maintenance while improving reliability. For the same reason, without resource sharing in the CPS applications we cannot implement them effectively due to various resource limits. For example, factory floors are overwhelmed by new devices and networks installed for various new individual applications observing and controlling production in an ever increasing detail, which applications must be also integrated in to the company IT systems for data sharing, supervision, etc. following the Industry 4.0 trend. Developers, installers and maintainers cannot keep up with the needs, and complexity grows in an intractable pace. The situation is similar to the state of the IT industry 15-20 years ago, and the question arises that we can follow the solution of the IT industry, namely, virtualization of the infrastructure for CPS.