Abstract
Trends such as the Industrial Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 have increased the need to use new and innovative network technologies in industrial automation. The growth of industrial automation communications is an outcome of the shift to harness the productivity and efficiency of manufacturing and process automation with a minimum of human intervention. Due to the ongoing evolution of industrial networks from Fieldbus technologies to Ethernet, a new opportunity has emerged to harness the benefits of Software Defined Networking (SDN). In this paper, we provide a brief overview of SDN in the industrial automation domain and propose a network architecture called the Software Defined Industrial Automation Network (SDIAN), with the objective of improving network scalability and efficiency. To match the specific considerations and requirements of having a deterministic system in an industrial network, we propose two solutions for flow creation: the Pro-active Flow Installation Scheme and the Hybrid Flow Installation Scheme. We analytically quantify the proposed solutions that alleviate the overhead incurred from the flow setup. The analytical model is verified using Monte Carlo simulations. We also evaluate the SDIAN architecture and analyze the network performance of the modified topology using the Mininet emulator. We further list and motivate SDIAN features and report on an experimental food processing plant demonstration featuring Raspberry Pi as a software-defined controller instead of traditional proprietary Programmable Logic Controllers. Our demonstration exemplifies the characteristics of SDIAN.
Highlights
Networking large automated machines is a recent focus for industrial automation and one challenge is the connectivity with traditional automation machinery that is not designed to support more than local computer connectivity
Software Defined Networking (SDN) can be characterized by: (1) decoupling the control plane from the data plane within network devices; (2) providing programmability for network services; (3) taking forwarding decisions based on flow instead of destination; (4) hosting control logic in an external network component called controller or Network Operating System (NOS); and (5) running software applications on top of the NOS to interact with the underlying data plane devices
We investigate the research gap that exists for IP-based networking in industrial automation and introduce a novel industrial network framework based on an SDN communication architecture
Summary
Networking large automated machines is a recent focus for industrial automation and one challenge is the connectivity with traditional automation machinery that is not designed to support more than local computer connectivity. The traditional industrial communications hierarchical structure consists of three network levels with various networking technologies and protocols that limits what can be achieved and adds complexity due to localized configuration. To facilitate FGIR, the current heterogeneous hierarchical localized network structure should be replaced with IP-based networking to provide flexible real-time communications and simplified data mapping. There is a requirement to change the configuration of the industrial machines and production systems as the production tasks change It is in this context that future industrial facility networks should embrace Software-Defined Networks (SDNs) to provide flexible programmatic capabilities. The research gap that this paper addresses is the introduction of SDN and IP-based networking into an industrial automation setting to provide flexibility and programmability while maintaining the features and capabilities expected for a real-time communications environment
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
