Secure and Time-sensitive Communication for Remote Process Control and Monitoring

The dissolving of the automation pyramid in the course of the fourth industrial revolution will impact the design of industrial networks. Especially processing components which nowadays are residing on a machine can be potentially located remotely in the factory IT or even beyond. In order to fulfill the still existing requirements of industrial automation processes, the network especially the infrastructure devices like switches and routers must be enhanced by new technologies granting real-time capability. Furthermore, the network has to meet Industry 4.0 demands regarding security as well as more flexibility like auto-configuration or seamless reconfiguration. A solution concept to establish secure and time-sensitive communication for remote process control and monitoring as well as first implementation steps are proposed. The concept and implementation include current technologies like Time-Sensitive Networking and deterministic networking in combination with Software-defined Networking. This grants flexibility regarding the configuration of time-sensitive industrial networks and adds possibilities to secure them.