A review on the main characteristics and security vulnerabilities of the wireless communication technologies in the Industry 4.0 domain

Abstract

Humanity's endless pursuit for higher efficiency and perfection has led to the development of many new technologies and to the introduction of innovations in different areas of our life. The industrial sector is logically amongst the largest benefactors of these new technologies and the latest wave of innovations in the sector is something that is generally referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0. The possibility for remote access to the manufacturing devices, systems and equipment and the possibility for their interconnection are among of the most significant innovations of Industry 4.0. While the cable connections and communication standards are still the dominating method for connectivity between the individual elements of the industrial and manufacturing machines, in the last decade, the trend is slowly changing. Many new solutions rely the wireless connection technologies and there are even examples of whole industrial systems and manufacturing complexes that are entirely relying on different wireless communication methods. The rapid technological development and the competition to introduce the most recent solutions and technologies in the manufacturing processes has many advantages and can be highly beneficial. Nevertheless, many new technologies and solutions are suffering from specific disadvantages, design flaws and security vulnerabilities, which can be used to cause damage and can lead to system inoperability and financial losses. In this paper we provide a review on the main characteristics of the wireless communication technologies for Industry 4.0 and we discuss some of the security vulnerabilities and issues in the sector. The Introduction section of the paper presents a short overview of each of the industrial revolutions and highlights the main technological differences between them. The second part of the paper is focused on the wireless standards and communication technologies, which are in use in the industrial sector. Our analysis continues with discussion on the security mechanisms for the wireless standards and with highlights on some of their main vulnerabilities and security issues. The paper is then concluded with discussion on the presented topic and with recommendations and advices for the implementation of the different wireless standards in the Industry 4.0 domain.