snap7

The Snap7 theatre (剧场、讲堂)
The purpose of Snap7 is to fully integrate your PC station into a PLC network, without anybody sees the difference.

To allow this, the Snap7 theater must be the same as the Siemens and contain the same actors.

Snap7 library contains three objects: the Client, the Server and the Partner.

Ø The three objects can be used simultaneously（同时） in the same application.
Ø Many objects of the same type can be instanced simultaneously.（可以同时实例化许多相同类型的对象。）
Ø Many applications can use Snap7 simultaneously.

Snap7 Client
A PLC client is the most well-known object, almost all PLC communication drivers on the market are clients.

Snap7 Server
Introduction
In spite of the fact that the Snap7Server is the easier object to use, initially it is probably the most complicated to digest.

Snap7 Partner
The Smart7Partner allows you to create a S7 peer to peer communication.
The Siemens model
Unlike the client-server model, where the client makes a request and the server replies to it, the peer to peer model sees two components with same rights, each of them can send data asynchronously.

http://snap7.sourceforge.net/