Patent ID: 7904184

Claim:
A system that facilitates coordinating timing associated with motion control in an industrial automation environment, comprising: a motion control component that communicates with a disparate motion control component, which has at least one of a different update rate or a different phase offset than that of the motion control component, via a network connection by utilizing a time stamping protocol to provide an update, wherein the time stamping protocol facilitates communication of at least a time stamp indicative of a measurement taken between the motion control component and the disparate motion control component; and a cycle timing component that utilizes a timing model, which supports the at least one of the different update rate or the different phase offset by employing the time stamp, to coordinate timing of operations of the motion control component related to the update by performing the operations within at least one coarse update period, wherein the operations are performed on dynamic data related to the motion control, the dynamic data employs a variable data structure that varies in size from the update to a next update.