Cross-Network Fusion and Scheduling for Heterogeneous Networks in Smart Factory

In the context of Industry 4.0, extensive deployment and application of advanced manufacturing equipment and various sensors is leading to a growing demand for data exchange between different devices. In smart factories, network transmission has multiprotocol features of wired/wireless communication, and different data flows have different real-time requirements. In this article, a heterogeneous network architecture based on software-defined network is proposed for realizing cross-network flexible forwarding of multisource manufacturing data and optimized utilization of network resources. Subsequently, the mechanism of cross-network fusion and scheduling (CNFS) is analyzed from the perspective of high dynamic characteristics and different delay requirements of data flows. Based on this analysis, a route-aware data flow dynamic reconstruction algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm improves the efficiency of manufacturing data cross-network fusion, especially for multivariety and small-batch intelligent manufacturing systems. Furthermore, for meeting the bandwidth requirements of different delay flows, a delay-sensitive network bandwidth scheduling algorithm is proposed. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed CNFS mechanism is verified using a candy packaging intelligent production line prototype platform.