Patent ID: 8175089

Claim:
An industrial communications system, comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the at least one memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions, comprising: a global address protocol configured to assign unique global addresses to one or more control objects on one or more industrial networks wherein a unique global address allows a sent message to reach a control object to which the unique global address is assigned; and a Domain Name Service (DNS) server configured to map user-assigned names to the unique global addresses, wherein the user-assigned names are arranged into a hierarchy that corresponds to a problem description or a physical domain of a factory, wherein the one or more control objects is assigned multiple unique global addresses, wherein at least one of the multiple unique global addresses indicates a physical location of the at least one of the one or more control objects in a logical description of the factory and at least one other of the multiple unique global addresses indicates a function of the at least one of the one or more control objects in the logical description of the factory; and at least one network component configured to communicate with the one or more control objects via their respective unique global address assigned by the global address protocol.