IEC 61499

IEC 61499 enables an application-centric design, in which one or more applications, defined by networks of interconnected function blocks, are created for the whole system and subsequently distributed to the available devices.

Through the interface of the software tool and the management commands, online reconfiguration of IEC 61499 applications can be realized.

IEC 61499-3 was related to an early Publicly Available Specification (PAS) version of the standard and was withdrawn in 2008.

Among other examples, IEC 61499-3 described the use of SIFBs as communication function blocks for remote access to real-time data and parameters of function blocks; the use of adapter interfaces to implement object oriented concepts; initialization algorithms in function block networks; and the implementation of ECCs for a simplified motor control of hypothetical VCRs.

A compliance profile describes how a system conforms to the rules of the IEC 61499 standard.

For example, the configurability of a device by a software tool is determined by the supported management commands.

The XML exchange format which determines portability of IEC 61499 compliant applications is defined within part 2 and is completed by the compliance profile, for example by declaring the supported file name extensions for exchange of software library elements.

Also status outputs, IP addresses, port numbers as well as the data encoding of function blocks like PUBLISH/SUBSCRIBE and CLIENT/SERVER, which are used for the communication between devices, have to be considered.