Title: Vertical integration in industrial enterprises and distributed middleware

Authors: Ahmed Ismail; Wolfgang Kastner

Addresses: Institute of Computer Aided Automation, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria ' Institute of Computer Aided Automation, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

Abstract: Recent advances in information, operations and networking technologies have brought forth many economical and organisational opportunities for industrial enterprises. One of the enabling pillars for the exploitation of these opportunities hinges predominantly on the design and introduction of frictionless vertical integration in enterprises. The paper presented concerns itself with the generation of autonomous middleware for vertical integration in existing or new industrial enterprises. Consequently, the paper discusses the main concerns of designing such middleware systems for typical enterprise infrastructure. Solutions from both the information and operations technology sectors are examined in light of said requirements with the aim of enhancing the current state of middleware solutions and industrial enterprises alike.

Keywords: vertical integration; industrial IoT; internet of things; industrial enterprises; enterprise reference architecture; ERA; industrial network design; factory connectivity standards; peer-to-peer; P2P; virtualisation; IEC 61499; middleware architectures; distributed middleware; enterprise integration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPT.2016.079547

International Journal of Internet Protocol Technology, 2016 Vol.9 No.2/3, pp.79 - 89

Received: 30 Sep 2015
Accepted: 25 May 2016

Published online: 30 Sep 2016 *

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