Task assignment in distributed process control computer systems

Abstract

The development of distributed computer systems offers significant computational capability for industrial process control applications. The objective of this article is to parameterize a computer control system distributed so as to relate the process performance to the computer structure, hardware and software limitations, organization, and operation. In particular, this parameterization realizes itself as a resource model in which the hardware resources of the computer are requested by the tasks of the system. Under a specific model of operation, the resource model is formulated and a detailed simulation of the computer system model is implemented. The simulation provides not only validation of the resource model, but allows examination of parametric relationships useful in system design. This simulation is linked to a simulation of a dynamic process; hence complex relationships between the computer and the process can be simply assessed. © 1993 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.