Control communications with DDS using IEC61499 Service Interface Function Blocks

The IEC61499 is an open standard for distributed control and automation. The interface between control software and hardware or communications is achieved by means of the so-called Service Interface Function Blocks (SIFB). This paper presents the guidelines to build communication SIFBs based on the emerging OMG DDS (Data Distribution Service) middleware. This specification implements in a very efficient way the Publisher/Subscriber paradigm providing significant QoS configuration possibilities. These characteristics make DDS suitable for implementing the communications among time-critical devices. By using these DDS-SIFBs within IEC61499 code generation tools, the designers of the distributed applications will be allowed to use this powerful technology in the new distributed applications.