Computer Communication Within Industrial Distributed Environment—a Survey

Nowadays, computer systems are presented in almost all types of human activity and they support any kind of industry as well. Most of these systems are distributed where the communication between nodes is based on computer networks of any kind. Connectivity between system components is the key issue when designing distributed systems, especially systems of industrial informatics. The industrial area requires a wide range of computer communication means, particularly time-constrained and safety-enhancing ones. From fieldbus and industrial Ethernet technologies through wireless and internet-working solutions to standardization issues, there are many aspects of computer networks uses and many interesting research domains. Lots of them are quite sophisticated or even unique. The main goal of this paper is to present the survey of the latest trends in the communication domain of industrial distributed systems and to emphasize important questions as dependability, and standardization. Finally, the general assessment and estimation of the future development is provided. The presentation is based on the abstract description of dataflow within a system.