Real-time: Overview

What Does This Article Cover?

How HighByte Intelligence Hub is used with real-time data
Which Intelligence Hub Connections are used with real-time data
Typical design patterns you'll see in Intelligence Hb solutions that process real-time data

Real-time data and Intelligence Hub

A key differentiation of HighByte Intelligence Hub is its's ability to process real-time process data. In the context of this article, real-time process data refers to the continuous, time-sensitive stream of information that represents the current state of equipment, sensors, and control systems within a plant or industrial environment. Real-time process data is the data that is collected, transmitted, and processed immediately (or within milliseconds to seconds) from industrial devices. Real-time process data reflects what is happening in the process right now.

Intelligence Hub typically processes data with resolution and latency on the order of magnitude of many hundreds of milliseconds or fractions of a minute. Therefore, it might be more accurate to categorize the data as near real-time.

The source of the real-time data for an Intelligence Hub solution could be PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), DCS (Distributed Control Systems), SCADA systems (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), HMIs (Human Machine Interface), or IIoT edge devices and gateways. Intelligence Hub is used to compose data pipeline solutions that read real-time data, write real-time data, move real-time data, add context and metadata to real-time data and more.

Intelligence Hub Connections for Real-time

Typically, real-time data is obtained by Intelligence Hub via standard protocol like OPC UA, Sparkplug, or MQTT. Intelligence Hub includes standard configurable Connections for each of these protocols. In addition, Intelligence Hub includes a standard configurable Connection for Inductive Automation Ignition software that is installed in Ignition as a module.

Typical Intelligence Hub Solutions

The following captures some of the Intelligence Hub solutions related to real-time data that we observe. Starter solutions are available for some of the scenarios below.

Polling - an Intelligence Hub solution can obtain real-time process data at a recurring frequency
Events - alternatively an Intelligence Hub solution can be configured to obtain the value for a process parameter each time it changes
Aliasing attributes - Intelligence Hub can be used to assign a descriptive name to a process parameter
Process context - an Intelligence Hub solution can be used to obtain and associate meaningful context to real-time process data ranging from the unit of measure including conversion to the current lot number, order number, or phase in a batch
Asset context - Intelligence Hub can be used to associate standard asset hierarchy context to real-time data
Add context to a transaction - an Intelligence Hub solution might add the current values of key process data to an MES quality transaction for example
Write data to the process - Intelligence Hub can also write data to systems controlling industrial processes

Summary

Starter solutions accelerate time-to-value by giving you a ready-to-run baseline for file scenarios. Use them to learn patterns and then tailor them for your environment, scale, and operability needs.