Industrial protocols are communications between industrial automation products for data acquisition or control. In the early days of industrial automation, communication was largely a competitive advantage, with automation suppliers inventing their own communication protocols to develop a technological edge and to lock in their customer base to some extent. Of course, this has changed over the years, and vendors have opened up their protocols and even treated them as industry standards in order to expand the scope of applications. Suppliers realize that the supplier with the largest product ecosystem to choose from will be more likely to win some, if not the entire, project. Suppliers are also aware of the challenge of becoming experts in all areas of automation. Let's explore several industrial protocols, and those that might be compatible with cloud applications.

Industrial Protocol Type

Over time, the manufacturing market is dominated by a series of protocols, which can be understood from the leading suppliers of automation products. Before discussing which ones are best for the cloud, we can discuss some of the most common industrial protocols. This includes protocol names such as Modbus, EthernetIP, Profinet, CC Link, EherCAT, etc. Many of these protocols are provided in different forms to address different topologies—such as dedicated wire versus Ethernet—and for different purposes (general information transfer versus deterministic control).

Standardization efforts over the years have brought us technologies from the OPC Foundation, originally based on Microsoft technologies, utilizing COM and DCOM Windows technologies for communication between applications. Thus, OPC (OLE for Process Control - OLE is the technology behind COM, short for Object Linking and Embedding) was born.

#1: OPC

OPC brings standards for accessing data, whether polling or subscribing, as well as the definition of different data types and how to handle them (analog and discrete variables, historical data, alarms and events, etc.). Over time, this standardization effort evolved from being Windows technology-centric to operating system-agnostic to supporting Linux and providing functionality suitable for Internet-based communications.

#2:

The new standard for OPC UA is called OPC UA - OPC now stands for Open Process Communication and UA stands for Unified Architecture, a standard that replaced many earlier standards.

#3: MQTT

Another technology that focuses more on the transmission of the message rather than the content of the message stems from the need for a highly distributed infrastructure with limited bandwidth, which can be found in the upstream oil and gas market . This protocol is called MQTT. In recent years, its application in the industrial automation market, especially in cloud communication, has become very popular.

#4: The BACnet

vertical market presents unique requirements and fosters the need for unique growth. In the field of building automation systems (BAS), the leading protocol is called BACnet. In the field of power generation and distribution, there are many protocols such as IEC-61850, 60870, DNP-3, etc.

These protocols have also existed in various topologies over time, and today most offer Ethernet compatibility.

Why is the cloud so important?

The benefits of cloud computing are numerous and compelling. They include:

• Converting Capital Expenses to Operating Expenses
• Stop worrying about infrastructure management
• Leverage sustainable scalable architecture
• Provide your entire organization with accessibility anytime, anywhere
• Leverage the services of domain experts (security, upgrades, solution development)

Clouds can come in many forms, from solutions offered by industry leaders like Microsoft and Amazon, to larger-scale offerings for target markets. Finally, there are managed solutions that move on-premises servers to virtual servers in the cloud, but still be managed entirely by the owner's IT staff.

The purpose of cloud computing is to reduce the total cost of ownership by reducing system management and hardware ownership and the ability to leverage solutions provided by others. These third-party solutions are often purpose-built for the market and offer multi-tenancy capabilities, allowing service providers to manage many customers while providing data and user isolation. The concept of cloud computing, especially for the industrial market, is still in its infancy, and companies are grappling with the idea of ​​cloud connectivity and hosting data beyond four walls.

But again, the benefits are compelling: operational costs are reduced, and domain experts develop vertical-market applications that only need to connect to the right data. There is also a very compelling benefit. Service providers have the ability to leverage knowledge gained from large numbers of customers to deliver greater value to individual customers. Therefore, the failure modes of a product in one environment can be predicted by the failure modes learned from other environments. This brings the potential for predictive analytics, adjusted by the results and anonymization of data from similar user ecosystems. When connecting to the cloud, it is important to consider which industrial protocols are best for the application.

What to Consider When Connecting to the Cloud

Considerations for leveraging cloud-based solutions fall into two broad categories

• Security (access security and network security related to data connections)
• Transmission (reliability and quality of data transmission)

Security is usually managed through the use of VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). This is an excellent solution for bidirectional and ad hoc communication as it is set up for remote troubleshooting purposes. When using a VPN for temporary access, customers can utilize the solution to secure and proxy access to endpoints in a very structured and controlled manner. This may include approval processes, access windows and time limits, and additional levels of authentication.

For information transfer to the cloud, it is becoming increasingly popular to use a publish-subscribe model and connection brokers to maximize security. The remote site publishes the data to a known very secure connection, and the user of the data (the cloud application) will subscribe to the data through the proxy, eliminating the application's knowledge of the details of the remote communication representing the vulnerability. The Microsoft IoT Hub is a good example of this technology.

Industrial Protocols for Cloud Connectivity

Not all industrial protocols are compatible with cloud applications, nor should they be. No need to go deep into each protocol and define if it can connect to the cloud, let's just say that the overall solution to the connectivity problem will be to deploy edge device technology that handles communication with your it and OT environment on the one hand and the cloud on the other data transfer requirements. These devices are starting to proliferate on the market, some with specific cloud connectivity built in, while others take a more toolkit approach and can be flexibly configured. Most have data transfer as their only function, while others support data modeling, analysis, and visualization in addition to data transfer.

From an OT perspective, we again discussed the myriad protocols and the purpose for which they were defined. As mentioned, some networks are designed for deterministic performance, such as communication between PLCs and servo drives. Protocols such as these are difficult to share without affecting their performance. Data sharing will be achieved by communicating with the controller rather than the devices on the control network. Other, more general protocols are often easily connected to cloud gateways (edge ​​devices) to share information with the cloud.

Over time, Ethernet has improved greatly in topology and performance, initially focusing on coaxial cables and now on twisted pair, with speeds in excess of 1 gigabit. Recent enhancements are in device synchronization and traffic shaping capabilities. These capabilities and more all fall into an area of ​​Ethernet enhancement known as TSN (Time Sensitive Networking). TSN is capable of prioritizing traffic over Ethernet and controlling the bandwidth of the traffic. The overall benefit in the long run is greater troubleshooting - access to all devices, lower costs through simplified architecture and the ability to expose all information to cloud systems.

Connect safely and securely

Even with a wide range of industrial protocols on the market, it is now possible to securely and reliably connect almost any automation solution to the cloud, either directly or using edge gateways. The challenges we face today are in education and advocacy, but the benefits are many.