Integration of Industrial Equipment and Distributed Control Systems into the Control Infrastructure at CERN

CERN Accelerators and Services have an existing large investment in control networks, fieldbuses, front-end process computers, workstations, system software and application programs. Increasingly, industrial equipment and complete Distributed Control Systems (DCS) are being installed to rejuvenate old and obsolete systems and new projects for LHC are taking shape. The object of this paper is to report experience of CERNs control engineers on integration of industrial equipment and systems. Several projects are described covering a vast area of applications. The paper presents several interfacing issues such as network connection of industrial equipment, software integration, homogeneous equipment access and alarm retrieval compatible with the existing Accelerators and Services Control System.