System and microservice for monitoring a plant of process automation

1. A system for monitoring a plant of automation technology, wherein the plant has a plurality of field devices and the field devices can communicate via at least a first communication network with one another and with a control unit, comprising:

an execution electronics, which can communicate with at least one of the field devices; and

a configuration electronics, which is arranged removed from the execution electronics and which can communicate with the execution electronics via a second communication network, wherein:

said configuration electronics and/or the execution electronics has at least one microservice, which is appropriate for the type of the field device and which is embodied to provide at least one functionality for execution in the execution electronics and/or in the configuration electronics, wherein the microservice is generated based on a device model produced from information concerning the field device, wherein the device model is a EDD- or FDI-device description.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:

said microservice is embodied to provide at least one of the following functionalities:

reading-out of at least a part of data available in the field device;

decoding the read-out data;

extracting at least a part of information contained in the decoded data;

preprocessing the extracted information; and

transmitting, especially securely, e.g. encrypted, the extracted or preprocessed information to a service platform by means of an IoT protocol.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein:

the data is static device data, parameter values and/or configuration data, and/or dynamic device data, measured values and/or diagnostic values.

4. The system as claimed in claim 2 , further comprising:

an application executed in a computing unit arranged removed from said execution electronics and from said configuration electronics, and embodied to access said configuration electronics by means of a third communication network.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein:

said configuration electronics and/or said application are/is embodied to replace the microservice contained in said configuration electronics and/or in said execution electronics, or to update such and/or to load other microservices into said configuration electronics and/or into said execution electronics; and

the terminology, updating, means especially changing a portion of the field devices, from which data are to be read out, changing the at least one part of data available in the portion of the field devices and/or changing a protocol, especially an IoT protocol, by means of which the extracted or preprocessed information are transmitted into said service platform.

6. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein:

said configuration electronics and/or said application is embodied to replace, or to update, said microservice, without interrupting ongoing operation of said configuration electronics or said execution electronics.

7. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein:

said third communication network is a Local Area Network.

8. The system as claimed in claim 2 , wherein:

said service platform is contactable via the Internet and is embodied as a cloud computing web service.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:

said microservice has a digital signature; and

the configuration electronics and/or said execution electronics is embodied only to accept microservices with valid digital signatures.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:

said execution electronics is integrated into a gateway.

11. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:

said configuration electronics is integrated into a network device, into a router or into a switch.

12. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:

said first communication network is a wireless or wired fieldbus according to a fieldbus protocol of automation technology.

13. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein:

said second communication network has an industrial Ethernet protocol, Ethernet/IP, HART-IP or Profinet.

14. A microservice for use in a system comprising:

a system for monitoring a plant of automation technology, wherein the plant has a plurality of field devices and the field devices can communicate via at least a first communication network with one another and with a control unit, comprising: an execution electronics, which can communicate with at least one of the field devices; and a configuration electronics, which is arranged removed from the execution electronics and which can communicate with the execution electronics via a second communication network, wherein: said configuration electronics and/or the execution electronics has at least one microservice, which is appropriate for the type of the field device and which is embodied to provide at least one functionality for execution in the execution electronics and/or in the configuration electronics; wherein the microservice is generated based on a device model produced from information concerning the field device, wherein the device model is a EDD- or FDI-device description.

15. The microservice as claimed in claim 14 , wherein:

the microservice is present in a binary and/or encrypted file format and/or is provided with a digital signature.