METHOD, SOFTWARE AGENT, NETWORKED DEVICE AND SDN-CONTROLLER FOR SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORKING A CYBER-PHYSICAL NETWORK OF DIFFERENT TECHNICAL DOMAINS, IN PARTICULAR AN INDUSTRY AUTOMATION NETWORK

摘要

In order to extend the "Software Defined Networking" of the cyber-physical respectively the industry automation network such that the quality of networking is improved up to industrial grade and which resolves the bunch of problems discussed in the introductory part of the application, it is proposed to merge the usage control of Operating System resources by App' s and/or Virtual Machines running on/hosted by a Networked Device (NWD) including an Operating System (OPS) in a cyber-physical Network (NW) with the controlling a modified SDN-System (SDNS) extending a conventional SDN-System to an "End-to-End"-Communication within the cyber-physical Network provides on a per-application-basis and to control all this from a SDN-Controller (SDNC) being adapted to these circumstances and requirements. This merging is implemented by a Software Agent (SWA) as additional logic and configuration elements assigned to the Operating System (OPS) in the Networked Device (NWDD) managing the properties of the Networked Device and the App' s and/or Virtual Machines running on/hosted by the Networked Device, which allows the introduction of flexible data models and which in addition to all the features provided by a forwarding rules management protocol enables remote access management concerning the App' s and/or Virtual Machines, containers instantiation, configuration of cyber-physical network- related appliances, etc..