Network management in distributed control systems

Abstract The paper reviews management concepts presented in a report on a collaborative project funded under the COST-11 bis programme by the Commission of the European Community. The report specifically addresses the management of Local Area Networks in real-time applications such as process control, data acquisition and factory automation. It presents a framework which relates network management to the OSI Reference Model. Various methods of structuring and classifying management activities are discussed and a set of generic management primitives is developed. A series of case studies show how the concepts presented can be used to describe the management of various communication systems.