In-network processing for context-aware SOA-based manufacturing systems

To achieve flexible manufacturing, increasingly large amounts of data are being generated, stored, analyzed, archived and eventually fed back into the product life cycle. But where is this data stored and how is it transported? Current methods rely on centralized or federated databases to manage the data storage. This approach has several challenges, such as collection bottlenecks, secure retrieval, single point of failure and data-scheme fragility as data heterogeneity increases. Additionally, manufacturers are finding the need to open their networks for service based equipment suppliers. This means previous security assumptions regarding network encryption and information access-control must be re-evaluated. Proposed here is a method of in-network processing that gathers information only where and when it is needed. Systems build context at runtime by creating dynamic queries which make service composition. The service composition processes raw data and presents it as information to the calling system. This reduces the movement of data/information and removes single point collection bottlenecks. Furthermore, fine grained access control and shared trust can be granted between untrusted systems. The proposed methods are demonstrated on a lab setup of an industrial use case.