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An improved industrial automation system and communication system for implementation therein, and related methods of operation, are described herein. In at least some embodiments, the improved communication system allows communication in the form of messages between modules in different control or e

An improved industrial automation system and communication system for implementation therein, and related methods of operation, are described herein. In at least some embodiments, the improved communication system allows communication in the form of messages between modules in different control or enterprise domains. Further, in at least some embodiments, such communications are achieved by providing a communication system including a manufacturing service bus having two internal service busses with a bridge between the internal busses. Also, in at least some embodiments, a methodology of synchronous messaging is employed.

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1. A system for facilitating communications between one or more enterprise-level modules and one or more control-level modules, the system comprising: a first bus that communicates with the one or more enterprise-level modules, wherein the first bus is an enterprise service bus (ESB) using Informati

1. A system for facilitating communications between one or more enterprise-level modules and one or more control-level modules, the system comprising: a first bus that communicates with the one or more enterprise-level modules, wherein the first bus is an enterprise service bus (ESB) using Information Technology based protocols;a second bus that communicates with the one or more control-level modules, wherein the second bus is an industrial control bus (ICB) employing a common industrial protocol (CIP); anda bridge in communication with both of the first and second buses,wherein the bridge facilitates establishment of one or more channels between the one or more enterprise-level modules and the one or more control-level modules. 2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a directory that is in communication with one or more of the first bus, the second bus and the bridge, and that publishes service description documents respectively relating to the modules. 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the directory provides one or more of advertising services, location services, search services, data descriptors and references. 4. The system of claim 2, wherein each of the service description documents includes information concerning one or more of an available service of a respective one of the modules, an interface element of the respective module, a protocol suitable for communicating the respective module, or an address of the respective module. 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the ESB provides one or more adapters and bindings facilitating communications with the one or more enterprise-level modules. 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the ESB provides one or more of an OPC-UA binding, a web services binding, a Java binding, and a COM binding. 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the bridge is implemented in either or both of a chassis-based module associated with one of the control-level modules and an IT server. 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the bridge includes multiple bridge instances. 9. The system of claim 1, wherein a web service description language (WSDL) is employed as a common service description language by the system. 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the second bus further enables communications between two or more control-level modules, without involvement by the first bus or the bridge. 11. The system of claim 10, wherein one of the control-level modules is one of an open connectivity unified architecture (OPC UA), Profinet or Modbus device. 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the first bus further enables communications between two or more enterprise-level modules, without involvement by the second bus or the bridge. 13. The system of claim 1, further comprising the modules, wherein a first of the modules includes a module interface allowing one or more of the other modules to interact with the first module. 14. The system of claim 13, wherein the module interface supports generic semantics, and wherein the module interface is based upon one or more of attributes (tags), callable methods with input and output parameters, and events and alarms that can be sent and received. 15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first module also has one or more client application programmer interfaces (APIs) that allow the first module to interact with others of the modules by way of additional module interfaces associated with those other modules. 16. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the enterprise-level modules is either a software module or a human machine interface (HMI) module. 17. The system of claim 1, wherein one or both of a service oriented architecture (SOA) and event driven architecture (EDA) are employed by the system. 18. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the modules operate as event consumers that subscribe to events or event categories, and one or more of the modules operate as event producers that publish events. 19. The system of claim wherein the channels include one or more of a point-to-point channel that involves a queue, and a publish/subscribe channel that involves a topic. 20. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is capable of providing the channels in such a manner that the channels provide desired levels of quality of service and security, message persistence, and message traceability functionality. 21. The system of claim 1, wherein the message traceability functionality includes a logging mechanism with coordinated system time stamping. 22. A system for facilitating communications between one or more enterprise-level modules and one or more control-level modules, the system comprising: a first bus that communicates with the one or more enterprise-level modules, wherein the first bus is an enterprise service bus (ESB) using Information Technology based protocols;a second bus that communicates with the one or more control-level modules, wherein the second bus is an industrial control bus (ICB); anda bridge in communication with both of the first and second buses,wherein the bridge facilitates establishment of one or more channels between the one or more enterprise-level modules and the one or more control-level modules. 23. A system for facilitating communications between one or more enterprise-level modules and one or more control-level modules, the system comprising: a first bus that communicates with the one or more enterprise-level modules, wherein the first bus is an enterprise service bus (ESB) using Information Technology based protocols, and wherein the ESB provides one or more adapters and bindings facilitating communications with the one or more enterprise-level modules;a second bus that communicates with the one or more control-level modules, wherein the second bus is an industrial control bus (ICB) employing a common industrial protocol (CIP);a bridge in communication with both of the first and second buses, wherein the bridge is implemented in either or both of a chassis-based module associated with one of the control-level modules and an IT server, wherein the bridge facilitates establishment of one or more channels between the one or more enterprise-level modules and the one or more control-level modules, and wherein the channels include one or more of a point-to-point channel that involves a queue, and a publish/subscribe channel that involves a topic; anda directory that is in communication with one or more of the first bus, the second bus and the bridge, and that publishes service description documents respectively relating to the modules,wherein a web service description language (WSDL) is employed as a common service description language by the system, wherein the second bus further enables communications between two or more control-level modules, without involvement by the first bus or the bridge, and wherein the first bus further enables communications between two or more enterprise-level modules, without involvement by the second bus or the bridge.