Patent ID: 9338236
Filing Date: 2016-05-10
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A computer-implemented method for checking a communication input of a programmable logic controller of an automation component of a plant, said checking occurring immediately upstream of an input interface of the programmable logic controller, the method comprising the steps of: performing a nominal/actual comparison locally at the programmable logic controller between a communication input and predefined rules of a nominal communication; forwarding a communication input directly to the input interface of the programmable logic controller, if the communication input satisfies at least one predefined rule of the nominal communication; forwarding the communication input to a processor in which internal statistics of all nominal/actual deviations are initially updated and deciding, based on a predefined reaction matrix including data arranged in rows and columns and including control features for controlling processes in one of the processor and a gate upstream of the input interface, whether a respective communication input shall result in issuance of a predefined active warning, if the communication input does not satisfy the at least one predefined rule; forwarding, by the processor, the communication input to the gate upstream of the input interface of the programmable logic controller, if the communication input does not satisfy at least one predefined rule; determining in the gate whether the communication input is one of blocked and not blocked depending on the predefined reaction matrix including the data arranged in rows and columns; and deciding, based on the control features, whether statistics of all the nominal/actual deviations are to be updated and in which manner the statistics of all the nominal/actual deviations are to be updated.