ABSTRACT
Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS) is being implemented on all common communication networks that support a safe transport of data. It is a standard messaging specification widely implemented by industrial device manufacturers like ABB, Alstom, General Electric, and Siemens. MMS merely describes the server side of the communication (objects and services) and the messages that are exchanged between client and server. Interfaces in connection with MMS are always understood in the sense that MMS quasi represents an interface between the devices and not within the devices. The virtual manufacturing device (VMD) object represents the outermost container in which all other objects are contained. The object model of an MMS variable object is conceptually different from a variable according to a programming language. The access path represents an essential feature of the MMS variable model. Program invocations are created by linking several domains. They are either predefined or created dynamically by MMS services or created locally.
