Configuration and management of a real-time smart transducer network

Smart transducer technology supports the composability, configurability, and maintainability of sensor/actuator networks. The configuration and management of such networks, when carried out manually, is an expensive and error-prone task. Therefore, many existing fieldbus systems provide means of "plug-and-play" that assist the user in these tasks. In this paper we describe configuration and management aspects in the area of dependable real-time fieldbus systems. We propose a configuration and management framework for a low-cost real-time fieldbus network. The framework uses formal XML descriptions to describe node and network properties in order to enable a data representation that comes with low overhead on nodes and enables the easy integration with software tools. The framework builds on the infrastructure and interfaces defined in the OMG smart transducers interface standard. As a case study, we have implemented a TTP/A configuration tool operating on a basic framework using the described concepts and mechanisms.