Coexistence Standardization of Operation Technology and Information Technology

Abstract

In factory automation (FA) and process control, networks and protocols of the operation technology are more and more merged with those of the information technology (IT). The requirements of operational technology (OT) and IT are different. Modern networks and protocols for communication in FA and process control systems must take care of the coexistence and convergence between the IT and OT worlds. Due to historical developments, the standards for OT were and remain defined by the International Electrical Commission. The IT, on the other hand, is the domain of the International Telecommunication Union and the International Standard Organization (ISO), which takes over most of the standards in the communication field from the IEEE Standard groups 802. This paper provides an overview of the standardization bodies involved and provides examples on how different requirements introduced by OT and IT can coexist. The merging of OT and IT on an Ethernet network with time-sensitive networking is the key technology for real-time applications in the factory floor. The adoption of the industrial protocol OPC UA provides secure connections from the factory floor to automation cloud infrastructures. IO-Link wireless, as new standard for sensors and actuators in OT, provides coexistence mechanisms toward wireless standards in IT applications such as IEEE 802.11. These examples show that there are possibilities to coexist and even to merge the standards and technologies of OT and IT in a successful way.