Distributed Platforms for Shop Floor Communications: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract This paper presents an overview of the evolution of factory communications and related standards, ranging from industrial network standards 1 such as MAP 2 , up to distributed platfonns like OSF/DCE 3 and OMG/CORBA 4 This overview has a particular emphasis on the advantages and constraints of distributed platforms as a means to support shop floor communications. The underlying work stems from and complements that of a previous paper (Santos et al.,1997) presenting a specific view on distributed platforms towards CIMOSA integrating infrastructure implementation.