To assess the role of distributed systems in modern industrial telecom, first of all, it is necessary to start out from the key requirements imposed to these systems in general.
The first one is a high level of reliability of the system. It means that its service life shall be decades. In this case, the system can be in the standby mode (preset readiness) if there are no emergency or out-of-schedule circumstances. But, in case of the emergency situation, the system shall be immediately activated. The reliability of industrial communication system guarantees that it will help saving human lives at the proper moment.
The second requirement is the speed of the system response – the possibility of the call initiator to contact immediately one or a group of subscribers. The connection time is the most vital in case of emergency situations when every second counts.
