Overall Architecture Description

From FactorityWiki

Contents 1 Introduction 2 High Level Overview 3 Qualities 4 Application Software 4.1 Business Applications 4.2 Infrastructure Applications 5 Application Platform 5.1 Service Interfaces 5.2 Service Categories 5.2.1 Data Management Services 5.2.2 Data Interchange Services 5.2.3 User Interface Services 5.2.4 International Operation Services 5.2.5 Location and Directory Services 5.2.6 Transaction Processing Services 5.2.7 Security Services 5.2.8 Software Engineering Services 5.2.9 System Management and Network Services 5.2.10 Operating System Services 5.2.11 System and Network Management Services 5.2.12 Common Object Services 5.3 Service Qualities 5.3.1 Availability 5.3.2 Assurance 5.3.3 Usability 5.3.4 Adaptability 6 Communication Infrastructure 7 Application Platform Interface 8 Communications Infrastructure Interface

Introduction

High Level Overview

The entities and interfaces of TRM (Figure 1) are:

1.		Entities
	-	Application Software
		Business applications and infrastructure applications provide domain specific MES features.
	-	Application Platform
		The FACTORITY platform provides numerous services grouped in several categories.
	-	Communications Infrastructure
		The MES IT infrastructure for FACTORITY installations depends on the customer and can diversify from factory to factory.
2.		Interfaces
	-	Application Platform Interface
		...
	-	Communications Infrastructure Interface
		...

All entities and interfaces are discussed on a back plane of Quality attributes.

The following sections will discuss FACTORITY according to these elements in much more detail.

Qualities

Application Software

Business Applications

There are several business applications based on the FACTORITY MES platform. Such business applications contain enterprise and production specific extensions and configurations of infrastructure applications. Application domains of FACTORITY are for example:

• automobile supplier,
• locking system production, and
• solar module production.

See FACTORITY Projects for more details. Note that particular business application features might become infrastructure applications over time.

Infrastructure Applications

Infrastructure applications are considered as sufficiently ubiquitous, interoperable, and general-purpose across enterprise borders. The implementations are based on application platform services.

Examples of such infrastructure applications are:

• Task Manager,
• Web Client
• Flexi Clients,
• Connectivity Server,
• Machine Park,
• Production Control Center

Application Platform

FACTORITY can be considered as an extensive application platform for MES applications. The platform services are all developed, tested and approved over years in real productions.

Service Interfaces

Usually, infrastructure application or business application features are using platform services via the public application platform interface (API). However, some services or features of services are only useful to other services. In that case, it is possible to omit this functionality in the API.

Examples in FACTORITY are:

Service Categories

In the following some the TRM service categories are discussed according to FACTORITY.

Data Management Services

	-	Data dictionary/repository services
		...
	-	Database Management System (DBMS) services
		...
	-	File management services
		...
	-	Query processing functions
		...
	-	Screen generation functions
		...
	-	Report generation functions
		...
	-	Networking/concurrent access functions
		...
	-	Warehousing functions
		...

Data Interchange Services

	-	Document generic data typing and conversion services
		...
	-	Graphics data interchange services
		...
	-	Specialized data interchange services
		...
	-	Electronic data interchange services
		...
	-	Fax services
		...
	-	Raw graphics interface functions
		...
	-	Text processing functions
		...
	-	Document processing functions
		...
	-	Publishing functions
		...
	-	Video processing functions
		...
	-	Audio processing functions
		...
	-	Multimedia processing functions
		...
	-	Media synchronization functions
		...
	-	Information presentation and distribution functions
		...
	-	Hyper text functions
		...

User Interface Services

	-	Graphical client/server services
		...
	-	Display objects services
		...
	-	Window management services
		...
	-	Dialog support services
		...
	-	Printing services
		...
	-	Computer-based training and online help services
		...
	-	Character-based services
		...

International Operation Services

	-	Character sets and data representation services
		...
	-	Cultural convention services
		...
	-	Local language support services
		...

Location and Directory Services

	-	Directory services
		...
	-	Special-purpose naming services
		...
	-	Service location services
		...
	-	Registration services
		...
	-	Filtering services
		...
	-	Accounting services
		...

Transaction Processing Services

	-	Transaction manager services
		...

Security Services

	-	Identification and authentication services
		...
	-	System entry control services
		...
	-	Audit services
		...
	-	Access control services
		...
	-	Non-repudiation services
		...
	-	Security management services
		...
	-	Trusted recovery services
		...
	-	Encryption services
		...
	-	Trusted communication services
		...

Software Engineering Services

	-	Programming language services
		...
	-	Object code linking services
		...
	-	Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) environment and tools services
		...
	-	Graphical user interface (GUI) building services
		...
	-	Scripting language services
		...
	-	Language binding services
		...
	-	Run-time environment services
		...
	-	Application binary interface services
		...

System Management and Network Services

	-	Data communications services
		...
	-	Electronic mail services
		...
	-	Distributed data services
		...
	-	Distributed file services
		...
	-	Distributed name services
		...
	-	Distributed time services
		...
	-	Remote process (access) services
		...
	-	Remote print spooling and output distribution services
		...
	-	Enhanced telephony functions
		...
	-	Shared screen functions
		...
	-	Video conferencing functions
		...
	-	Broadcast functions
		...
	-	Mailing list functions
		...

Operating System Services

	-	Kernel operations services
		...
	-	Command interpreter and utility services
		...
	-	Batch processing services
		...
	-	File and directorysynchronization services
		...

System and Network Management Services

	-	User management services
		...
	-	Configuration management (CM) services
		...
	-	Performance management services
		...
	-	Availability and fault management services
		...
	-	Accounting management services
		...
	-	Security management services
		...
	-	Print management services
		...
	-	Network management services
		...
	-	Backup and restore services
		...
	-	Online disk management services
		...
	-	License management services
		...
	-	Capacity management services
		...
	-	Software installation services
		...
	-	Trouble ticketing services
		...

Common Object Services

	-	Change management services
		...
	-	Collections services
		...
	-	Concurrency control services
		...
	-	Data interchange services
		...
	-	Event management services
		...
	-	Externalization services
		...
	-	Licensing services
		...
	-	Life cycle services
		...
	-	Naming services
		...
	-	Persistent object services
		...
	-	Properties services
		...
	-	Query services
		...
	-	Relationship services
		...
	-	Security services
		...
	-	Start-up services
		...
	-	Time services
		...
	-	Trading services
		...
	-	Transaction services
		...

Service Qualities

Service qualities have a pervasive effect on the operation of almost all functional services.

Availability

		-	Manageability:
			...
		-	Service ability:
			There are different ways to identify problems of the running system:
			- command line output,
			- log files of certain processes, and
			- protocol log entries in database that are viewable via web application. See Problem Identification.
			In addition, the AS+ application server provides the ability to repair the source code of running modules on the fly. See AS+ Plugin.
		-	Performance:
			The FACTORITY platform provides the ability
		-	Reliability:
			There are services that are responsible to analyze the running system and catch failures. Thus it is practically impossible that a running FACTORITY instance crashes without serious attacks from outside. See Task Control Center, Security Mechanisms, On-the-fly system analysis
		-	Recoverability:
			...or the ability to restore a system to a working state after an interruption..
		-	Locatability:
			...the ability of a system to be found when needed ...

Assurance

		-	Security
			... or the protection of information from unauthorized access...
		-	Integrity
			... or the assurance that data has not been corrupted
		-	Credibility
			...or the level of trust in the integrity of the system and its data...

Usability

		-	International Operation
			The FACTORITY Web and Termial front end are multi-lingual. Thus, the data model contains L18N tables for several languages. See Localization Projects.

Adaptability

		-	Interoperability
			The FACTORITY application works together with many different systems. Services connect ERP, MES, and machines. Thus the same information can be used in different contexts. See Communication Servants.
			Scalability
			The logical FACTORITY architecture is highly scalable. Small installations can run on one server., whereas the distribution of process to different machines requires only a little configuration effort. See Deployment Configuration.
		-	Portability
			The FACTORITY back and front end is based on Java technology and thus independent of a particular OS. In addition, there are connections to several data base systems (oracle, postgres, mysql,...) available. See Deployment Configuration.
		-	Extensibility
			The architecture is open to all kinds of extensions. See FACTORITY Extensions.

Communication Infrastructure

Many services, discussed in the previous section, are provided by the AS+ or Jetty application Server and the WireWare product. They can run in different heterogeneous communication infrastructures that provide the basic services to interconnect systems.

Supported hardware:

• IBM PC / Server

Supported operating systems:

• Windows
  • Windows 2000
  • Windows XP
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows Server 2008
• Linux
• OS X (for client and server applications that do not need to communicate with machines directly)

Supported PLCs:

• Siemens S7
• Mitsubishi (Melsec)
• Beckhoff (ADS)
• All PLCs, which support Modbus/TCP (eg. Wago, Schneider, ...)

Application Platform Interface

The FACTORITY applications use public application platform interfaces of AS+, WireWare, and other 3rd party products. Whereas a certain FACTORITY installation does not have to use all of the discussed services.

For a detailed description see API Documentation.

Communications Infrastructure Interface