Considerations on a LonWorks/IP Gateway Implementation

The success of the Internet makes it a superb goal to discuss interworking aspects with fieldbus systems. LonWorks with its strict layering is especially interesting to explore within this context. The discussion of concepts for a LonWorks/IP gateway leads to three approaches exploiting different protocol mechanisms giving IP hosts access to nodes’ files, network variables and application messages as well as EIA-709.1 link layer packets. An experimental implementation is based on a real-time operating system running on an embedded hardware platform featuring a powerful Motorola micro controller.