A methodology for integrating control devices in IEEE 802.3 networks

Control device manufacturers design hardware and software interconnecting their products via introduced networks, i.e. computer networks. Among them, one of the most popular is the IEEE 802.3 standard, known as ethernet. The paper concerns problems which appear when different control devices are to be integrated, assuming that each of them follows the IEEE 802.3 standard but have different protocols at higher levels. This situation means the development of the higher levels of the OSI architecture from the lower ones. This paper proposes a methodology for communicating different control devices with the cell controller node which is represented by a computer running under UNIX operating system. An example is presented.