IEC 61499

The international standard IEC 61499, addressing the topic of function blocks for industrial process measurement and control systems, was initially published in 2005. The specification of IEC 61499 defines a generic model for distributed control systems and is based on the IEC 61131 standard. The concepts of IEC 61499 are also explained by Lewis and Zoitl as well as Vyatkin.

IEC 61499-1 defines the architecture for distributed systems. In IEC 61499 the cyclic execution model of IEC 61131 is replaced by an event driven execution model. The event driven execution model allows an explicit specification of the execution order of function blocks. If necessary, periodically executed applications can be implemented by using the E_CYCLE function block for the generation of periodic events as described in Annex A of IEC 61499-1.

IEC 61499 enables an application-centric design, in which one or more applications, defined by networks of interconnected function blocks, are created for the whole system and subsequently distributed to the available devices. All devices within a system are described within a device model. The topology of the system is reflected by the system model. The distribution of an application is described within the mapping model. Therefore, applications of a system are distributable but maintained together.

Like IEC 61131-3 function blocks, IEC 61499 function block types specify both an interface and an implementation. In contrast to IEC 61131-3, an IEC 61499 interface contains event inputs and outputs in addition to data inputs and outputs. Events can be associated with data inputs and outputs by WITH constraints. IEC 61499 defines several function block types, all of which can contain a behavior description in terms of service sequences:

To maintain the applications on a device IEC 61499 provides a management model. The device manager maintains the lifecycle of any resource and manages the communication with the software tools (e.g., configuration tool, agent) via management commands. Through the interface of the software tool and the management commands, online reconfiguration of IEC 61499 applications can be realized.

IEC 61499-2 defines requirements for software tools to be compliant to IEC 61499. This includes requirements for the representation and the portability of IEC 61499 elements as well as a DTD format to exchange IEC 61499 elements between different software tools. There are already some IEC 61499 compliant software tools available. Among these are commercial software tools, open-source software tools, and academic and research developments. Usually an IEC 61499 compliant runtime environment and an IEC 61499 compliant development environment is needed.

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