Quality of service in manufacturing networks: a service framework and its implementation

Due to the continuous growth in the application of networks in manufacturing, quality of service (QoS) has become an important issue. In this paper, the concept of QoS for manufacturing networks is discussed. To provide overall performance assurance for manufacturing networks, a service framework integrating the QoS mechanisms of the networked resource service management function and the communication networks is proposed. The novel framework maps an application to resource services and then to communication networks, adopts an intelligent optimisation algorithm for QoS management of resource services, and provides QoS schemes for data transfer across communication networks. A prototype implementation has been realised and a set of simulation experiments conducted to evaluate the validity of the framework. The results obtained demonstrate the ability of the framework to satisfy the various performance requirements posed by such applications and provide efficient overall performance assurance for manufacturing networks.