Abstract:
An industrial control network is a system of interconnected
equipment used to monitor and control physical
equipment in industrial environments. These networks differ
quite significantly from traditional enterprise networks due to
the specific requirements of their operation. Despite the functional
differences between industrial and enterprise networks,
a growing integration between the two has been observed. The
technology in use in industrial networks is also beginning to
display a greater reliance on Ethernet and web standards,
especially at higher levels of the network architecture. This has
resulted in a situation where engineers involved in the design
and maintenance of control networks must be familiar with
both traditional enterprise concerns, such as network security,
as well as traditional industrial concerns such as determinism
and response time. This paper highlights some of the differences
between enterprise and industrial networks, presents a brief
history of industrial networking, gives a high level explanation
of some operations specific to industrial networks, provides an
overview of the popular protocols in use and describes current
research topics. The purpose of this paper is to serve as an
introduction to industrial control networks, aimed specifically at
those who have had minimal exposure to the field, but have some
familiarity with conventional computer networks.