Operating principle

The following graphic illustrates the functional principle using the example of the cloud environment.

The user (1) prepares the configuration parameters (2) and provides them as a Docker environment variable in a cloud environment (in a local environment, as a JSON file) before the Information Router service is started. While the Information Router service is running, the parameters remain unchanged. Once the Information Router service is started, the endpoints are available.

The machine (3) sends a message as a machine request (4) to the Information Router service (5) (i.e., the production machine begins communication). The Information Router service uses the access data transmitted by the machine to authenticate (6) the machine to the Multitenant Access Control module (7).

Depending on the configuration, further communication can be synchronous or asynchronous. In the case of asynchronous execution, the Information Router service immediately sends a response (8) to the machine indicating whether the authentication was successful. In the case of synchronous execution and successful authentication, the Information Router service sends the response to the machine at a later point in time.

The Information Router service then forwards the request (10) to the configured external services (11). The external services are a set of Nexeed Industrial Application System services that the Information Router service can communicate with, such as Condition and Process Monitoring (CPM) and Error Detection Module (ES). The external service delivers the response (12) to the Information Router service, which is forwarded to the machine in the case of synchronous execution. Throughout the entire process, log entries (13) are sent to the log aggregator in a cloud environment or to the event logger service in a local environment.