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Proxus 2.0.0 Proxus 2.0: the largest release in Proxus history Release notes

Platform · Architecture

Built like plant infrastructure, explained like a drawing.

Two tiers, one model, and a deliberate answer for the day the network fails. This page describes how the platform is put together and why, without the vendor names underneath, which are an implementation detail and change over time.

Shape
Hub and spoke: one central platform, many autonomous gateways
Configuration
Defined centrally, executed at the edge. Gateways keep no configuration of their own
Offline behaviour
Collection, rules and buffering continue without the hub
Scales from
From a single host to a multi-site fleet, without changing the model

The whole system

Four layers, and what travels between them.

Field, edge, hub and consumers Equipment sends data through an edge gateway to Proxus Hub, then to Dashboards & systems. Deployment configuration travels from the hub back down to the edge. Controllers S7 / CIP / MELSEC Machines & robots FOCAS / MTConnect Meters & SCADA Modbus / OPC UA Modelled signals 02 / EDGE Proxus Edge Collect / evaluate / buffer 03 / PLATFORM Proxus Hub Namespace / history / access Dashboards &reports Inside Proxus Databases & cloud Optional destinations Business systems MES / ERP / QMS Configuration: hub to edge 01 / PLANT FLOOR04 / CONSUMERS Field, edge, hub and consumers Read from bottom to top. Field equipment is at the bottom and data travels upward. Equipment sends data through an edge gateway to Proxus Hub, then to Dashboards & systems. Deployment configuration travels from the hub back down to the edge. Deployment manifest 01 Plant floor PLCs / CNCs / robots 02 Proxus Edge Collect / evaluate /buffer 03 Proxus Hub Namespace / history /access 04 Dashboards &systems Built-in views +optional targets

Enterprise

Systems Proxus delivers into

  • MES / ERP / QMS

    business systems

  • Cloud & warehouse

    analytics platforms

  • BI tools

    where teams already work

  • Brokers & streams

    event consumers

  • AI assistants

    governed, permission-limited access

Hub

Model, history, screens and administration

  • Unified Namespace

    one address per signal

  • Historian

    telemetry and logs

  • Dashboards

    built in, same data

  • Reports

    scheduled, in platform

  • Orchestration

    deployment manifests

  • Access control

    roles and paths

Edge gateway

Configuration from the hub, buffer at the site

  • Collect

    poll and receive MQTT

  • Evaluate

    rules and anomalies

  • Functions

    your own logic

  • Buffer

    store and forward

  • Publish

    namespace and MQTT

Plant floor

Controllers, machines and meters

  • PLCs

    S7, CIP, MELSEC

  • CNC & robots

    FOCAS, MTConnect

  • Meters & SCADA

    Modbus, OPC UA

  • OPC UA servers

    existing estate

  • MQTT devices

    publish to the built-in broker

Data flows from equipment through the edge to the hub; configuration travels back to the edge and is never authored on the box. Dashboards and reports sit inside the platform. External systems are destinations, not prerequisites for seeing your data.

Division of labour

What each tier is responsible for.

The split is deliberate: decisions that must survive a network outage happen at the edge, decisions that must be consistent across sites happen centrally.

The hub

Where the truth is defined.

  • Single source of truth

    Device profiles, rules, functions and delivery targets are defined once, centrally. Nothing is configured on a gateway directly.

  • Orchestration

    The hub decides which gateway runs which workload and hands it a deployment manifest: the current job list for that gateway.

  • Central history

    Telemetry from every gateway is collected and retained centrally, in a store built for time-series volume.

  • Management console

    One window into every connected site: configuration, live values, dashboards, reports and operational logs.

  • Health monitoring

    Heartbeats and metrics from every gateway, so a silent site is visible before someone notices the missing data.

The gateways

Where the work is done.

  • Acquisition

    Reads controllers, machines, meters and OPC UA servers over their own protocols, at the interval each signal needs.

  • Local execution

    Rules, anomaly detection and custom functions evaluate on the gateway, without waiting for the hub to answer.

  • Buffering

    What cannot be delivered, to the hub or to any outbound target, is held locally and written in order when the link returns.

  • Local publication

    The modelled namespace is published from the gateway itself, so plant-side consumers do not depend on the centre.

  • No local configuration

    A gateway keeps no configuration of its own. Replacing one is a hardware task, not a rebuild.

The path a value takes

From a register to a decision, in ten steps.

This really is a sequence, so it is numbered. Every step is something the platform does on its own once the first one is done by a person.

  1. 01

    Configure centrally

    Someone defines a device, a rule or a delivery target in the management console. This is the only place configuration is authored.

  2. 02

    Distribute to the gateway

    The change travels to the right gateway over a durable, replayable backbone. If the gateway is offline it receives the change when it returns; the platform tracks delivery rather than assuming it.

  3. 03

    Start the workload

    The gateway receives its manifest and starts the collection and messaging work it describes.

  4. 04

    Read the equipment

    Values arrive by polling a controller or by devices publishing to the gateway’s own MQTT broker. Every path is authenticated.

  5. 05

    Detect what changed

    An orchestration step decides what is new and routes it: to rule evaluation, to delivery targets, or to both.

  6. 06

    Evaluate locally

    Cached rules run against the value, and anomaly detection runs live: Z-score, IQR, moving average, rate of change, drift, flatline and gap.

  7. 07

    Publish the modelled signal

    The value is published into the namespace under its asset path, in the platform’s own topic form and in Sparkplug B where enabled, with delivery quality rules applied.

  8. 08

    Deliver outward

    Configured targets receive it (databases, brokers, cloud services, business systems) and the outcome of each delivery feeds the target’s status.

  9. 09

    Store centrally

    The hub receives the stream, retains telemetry and operational records, and publishes to an internal stream for live views.

  10. 10

    Show it without a refresh

    Live values, status and trends reach the console through a cache fed by that stream, so screens update as data arrives.

When the link drops

The part most architectures leave for later.

Industrial networks fail. The question is not whether the platform survives it, but what it is doing while it lasts and what it does about it afterwards.

  • The line keeps producing data

    Collection and rule evaluation are local. A network outage stops delivery, not measurement.

  • Delivery is tracked, not assumed

    Configuration delivery and outbound delivery both carry state. "Sent" and "acknowledged" are different things and the platform treats them that way.

  • Recovery is automatic

    When the link returns, buffered data is forwarded and the gateway reconciles with the hub. Nobody has to remember what was pending.

  • Hardware failure is a swap

    Because the gateway keeps no configuration of its own, the replacement is installed with a new command from the hub and pulls the same devices, rules and functions.

Governance in the architecture

Decisions that are structural, not settings.

  • One address per signal

    Signals are published under an ISA-95-shaped path (enterprise, site, area, process cell, equipment module, device, tag) so the same value has the same address at every site.

  • Permissions enforced server-side

    Access is checked in the service layer, not only in the interface. Bypassing the screen does not bypass the rule.

  • Operational logs stay readable

    Customer-facing logs carry a safe summary, severity, reason code, source and occurrence count. Repeated events are grouped rather than repeated.

  • Diagnostic evidence is separated

    Stack traces, absolute paths and raw payloads live in support bundles for the team investigating, not on an operator’s screen.

  • Query access is constrained

    Reporting and dashboard SQL paths enforce read-only, single-statement queries through one shared guard.

  • Alerts you can look back on

    Anomaly detection runs live at the edge. The trend workspace shows the stored alert moments, so a flagged deviation can be read against the history around it.

Deployment shapes

The same architecture, four sizes.

Deployment and security detail
Single host
Hub and one gateway on the same machine. Evaluation, a demonstration, or a small single-line site.
Site and centre
Gateways at each site connecting to a central hub over a durable, replayable stream.
Fleet
Many gateways across many sites, each with its own identity and capacity, all visible centrally.
Air-gapped
The whole platform inside an isolated network, with no outbound requirement at any layer. Images are loaded offline.

How it is built

One codebase, not a bundle of other products.

A lot of industrial platforms are an assembly: a flow tool, a dashboard tool, a broker and a database, packaged together and called one product. Every seam in that assembly is a version to reconcile, a process to supervise and a failure mode nobody owns. Proxus is written as one system, which is why the footprint at the edge stays small.

  • One gateway process at the line

    Drivers, rule evaluation, anomaly detection, its MQTT broker and every outbound client run in one gateway process, not as separate applications supervised together. A messaging container next to it holds the local buffer.

  • One script, two pieces

    A site needs the gateway process and the messaging container that holds its buffer, set up by one install script. Configuration comes from the hub. No database at the edge and no runtime to provision by hand, which is what makes an industrial PC a reasonable host.

  • Built for the hot path

    Binary internal messaging rather than JSON, an actor-based runtime, allocation-aware libraries and workstation garbage collection. Built on .NET.

  • Infrastructure only where it belongs

    The hub uses a transactional store, a columnar store and a durable message backbone, the things infrastructure is genuinely good at. The application layer above them is ours, not an assembly of other people’s applications.

These are architectural properties you can verify in a running deployment. We do not publish throughput or latency figures without the hardware, workload and measurement boundary that would make them mean something. Ask for a scoping call and we will size it against your own data rate.

Next step

Walk the architecture against your own topology.

Bring your sites, your network constraints and the systems that have to receive the data. An engineer will draw it with you, tell you where it gets difficult, and send you the deployment and security brief beforehand.

  1. 01

    Scoping call

    Equipment, protocols, sites and the systems the data has to reach.

  2. 02

    Technical walkthrough

    A working demo against a scenario that resembles your plant, not a generic tour.

  3. 03

    Pilot plan

    A defined first line or site, with the deployment and security questions answered up front.

  4. 04

    Roll-out

    The same templates bring the next lines and sites online.