Isolation of virtualized control applications (IsoViS)

• Applicant: Dr.-Ing. Armin Lechler
• Subject Area: Production Automation and Assembly Technology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 549319560

Flexible and adaptable software systems have long been a subject of research. Today's production systems are characterized by limited adaptability. Successful alternatives are defined by their adaptability, rapid innovation cycles, and flexible response to customer demands. As a result, traditional hierarchical structures of the classic automation pyramid are increasingly giving way to more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solutions. In addition, software-defined approaches aim to enhance the flexibility of manufacturing systems. These approaches, such as Software-defined Manufacturing (SDM), rely on two pillars: flexible hardware that can be reconfigured for various purposes, and modular software architectures like service-oriented architectures (SOAs). Cohesive automation applications are formed through the composition of services. It becomes evident that for the deterministic execution of two independent applications, the isolation of computing and network resources is indispensable. SOAs benefit from hardware-independent service provision, requiring virtualization for implementation. Lightweight virtualization methods, such as software containers, simplify the adaptation of automation systems by bundling applications and their dependencies. Ensuring isolation between different workloads, including communication infrastructure, is crucial to guarantee determinism. The proposal emphasizes the need to research methodologies for achieving the necessary isolation of relevant shared resources in consolidated, virtualized control applications while maintaining hard real-time properties. The research project aims to explore the essential resources identified in previous work, the fundamental mechanisms required for isolation, and their integration into orchestration tools for complete isolation of individually containerized real-time services. It is necessary to investigate the methodologies for achieving the isolation of shared resources in consolidated control applications while preserving the hard real-time characteristics of the entire service composition.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Alexander Verl