ProtocolBridge
Documented modern interfaces for machines the OEM abandoned, so equipment that still runs can still be read, controlled and integrated.
- Category
- Machine connectivity
- Model
- Product + engineering service
- Core platform
- ALIA Connectivity Core
- Status
- PLANNED
01 Problem
Plants run on machines whose manufacturers no longer exist or no longer care, and the protocols those machines speak were never documented. Every integration project routes around them, and every year they become harder to keep in production.
The cost is capable machinery isolated from modern systems, or scrapped, because nobody can talk to it.
02 Specification
This is the specification we are building toward. The status column shows what exists today.
- Protocol recoveryPLANNED
Discontinued and proprietary interfaces are analyzed and recovered into documented protocol definitions.
PLANNED - Bidirectional bridge with preserved safety behaviorPLANNED
The bridge passes data in both directions while preserving the machine’s original safety behavior exactly.
PLANNED - Modern interface exposurePLANNED
Recovered machines are exposed through OPC-UA, MQTT and REST, the interfaces plant systems already speak.
PLANNED - Session-state fidelityPLANNED
Protocol session state is maintained faithfully, so the machine sees the peer it expects.
PLANNED - Galvanic isolation optionsPLANNED
Hardware isolation options protect fragile legacy electronics from the systems they connect to.
PLANNED - Long-run stability monitoringPLANNED
Bridges monitor their own health over months of operation and report degradation before it becomes an outage.
PLANNED - Recovered-protocol libraryPLANNED
Each recovered protocol is intended to enter a growing library, so the next machine of the same family connects faster.
PLANNED - Engineering service for unseen protocolsPLANNED
Protocols the library does not cover are recovered as an engineering service and then folded into the product.
PLANNED
Updated as capabilities ship. BUILT means working and validated; nothing gets that label early.
03 System
- 01Legacy machine
- 02Protocol analysis
- 03Bridge hardware
- 04Modern interface
- 05Plant systems
04 Engineering
Protocol core
ProtocolBridge is built on our protocol and connectivity core. Recovery combines passive capture, controlled stimulus and state-machine reconstruction to produce a documented protocol definition, and each recovered definition compiles into bridge firmware rather than being reimplemented by hand.
Bridge hardware
The bridge is dedicated hardware sitting between the machine and the plant network, with galvanic isolation options for fragile legacy electronics. Safety interlocks and timing behavior are preserved by design: the machine always sees the peer it expects, and the bridge fails toward the machine’s safe state.
Integration surface
On the modern side the bridge speaks OPC-UA, MQTT and REST. Machines the library already covers are designed to connect quickly, and protocols we have not seen are recovered as an engineering service and folded back into the library.
05 Why this is hard
The genuine problem is timing, state reconstruction and safety-interlock preservation without original documentation. Legacy protocols embed undocumented timing tolerances and session state, and a bridge that gets a handshake slightly wrong can stop a machine or, worse, mask a safety behavior. The engineering work is reconstructing exact behavior from observation and proving the bridge preserves it before it ever runs in production.
06 Design constraints
- Original safety behavior preserved exactly
- The machine always sees the peer it expects
- Galvanic isolation available
- Fails toward the machine’s safe state
- Every recovered protocol is documented
07 Design partner program
Design partner program.
We are looking for a small number of design and pilot partners. A partner gets the problem solved for their operation first, direct influence on the specification above, and pilot pricing. In exchange we get reality: real constraints, real data, real operators. No external partner is engaged on this product yet.