Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging domain that promises ubiquitous connection to the Internet, turning common objects into connected devices. The IoT paradigm is changing the way people interact with things around them. It paves the way for creating pervasively connected infrastructures to support innovative services and promises better flexibility and efficiency. Such advantages are attractive not only for consumer applications, but also for the industrial domain. Over the last few years, we have been witnessing the IoT paradigm making its way into the industry marketplace with purposely designed solutions. In this paper, we clarify the concepts of IoT, Industrial IoT, and Industry 4.0. We highlight the opportunities brought in by this paradigm shift as well as the challenges for its realization. In particular, we focus on the challenges associated with the need of energy efficiency, real-time performance, coexistence, interoperability, and security and privacy. We also provide a systematic overview of the state-of-the-art research efforts and potential research directions to solve Industrial IoT challenges.

Industrial Internet of Things: Challenges, Opportunities, and Directions

With the introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT) and cyberphysical system (CPS) concepts in industrial application scenarios, industrial automation is undergoing a tremendous change. This is made possible in part by recent advances in technology that allow interconnection on a wider and more fine-grained scale. The purpose of this article is to review technological trends and the impact they may have on industrial communication. We will review the impact of IoT and CPSs on industrial automation from an industry 4.0 perspective, give a survey of the current state of work on Ethernet time-sensitive networking (TSN), and shed light on the role of fifth-generation (5G) telecom networks in automation. Moreover, we will point out the need for harmonization beyond networking.

The Future of Industrial Communication: Automation Networks in the Era of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0

One of the most significant advances in the development of computer science, information and communication technologies is represented by the cyber-physical systems (CPS). They are systems of collaborating computational entities which are in intensive connection with the surrounding physical world and its on-going processes, providing and using, at the same time, data-accessing and data-processing services available on the Internet. Cyber-physical production systems (CPPS), relying on the latest, and the foreseeable further developments of computer science, information and communication technologies on one hand, and of manufacturing science and technology, on the other, may lead to the 4th industrial revolution, frequently noted as Industrie 4.0. The paper underlines that there are significant roots in general – and in particular to the CIRP community – which point towards CPPS. Expectations towards research in and implementation of CPS and CPPS are outlined and some case studies are introduced. Related new R&D challenges are highlighted.

Cyber-physical systems in manufacturing

This paper provides an overview of the recent developments in data-based techniques focused on modern industrial applications. As one of the hottest research topics for complicated processes, the data-based techniques have been rapidly developed over the past two decades and widely used in numerous industrial sectors nowadays. The core of data-based techniques is to take full advantage of the huge amounts of available process data, aiming to acquire the useful information within. Compared with the well-developed model-based approaches, data-based techniques provide efficient alternative solutions for different industrial issues under various operating conditions. The main objective of this paper is to review and summarize the recent achievements in data-based techniques, especially for complicated industrial applications, thus providing a referee for further study on the related topics both from academic and practical points of view. This paper begins with a brief evolutionary overview of data-based techniques in the last two decades. Then, the methodologies only based on process measurements and the model-data integrated techniques will be further introduced. The recent developments for modern industrial applications are, respectively, presented mainly from perspectives of monitoring and control. The new trends of data-based technique as well as potential application fields are finally discussed.

Data-Based Techniques Focused on Modern Industry: An Overview

In this paper we discuss a selection of promising and interesting research areas in the design of protocols and systems for wireless industrial communications. We have selected topics that have either emerged as hot topics in the industrial communications community in the last few years (like wireless sensor networks), or which could be worthwhile research topics in the next few years (for example cooperative diversity techniques for error control, cognitive radio/opportunistic spectrum access for mitigation of external interferences).

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Recent and Emerging Topics in Wireless Industrial Communications: A Selection

Kunftige Smart Grids stellen hochgradig vernetzte Systeme mit einem prognostizierten Umfang des heutigen Internets dar. Hierbei wird Automatisierungs- und Kommunikationstechnik eingesetzt, die neue Herausforderungen bezuglich Datensicherheit- und Datenschutz zu erfullen hat. Dieser Beitrag zeigt die Anforderungen an IKT-Systeme fur ein zukunftiges heterogenes, dezentrales und intelligentes Energiesystem unter Berucksichtigung aktueller und zu erwartender Datensicherheits- und Datenschutzanforderungen auf.

Sicherheits- und Datenschutzanforderungen an Smart Grid-Technologien

The thirteen papers in this special section focus on the deployment of distributed computer systems in industry.

Guest Editorial Special Section on Distributed Computer Systems in Industry

Today radio based wireless communication technologies offer limited performance, whereas optical wireless com- munication systems (OWC) propose potentially a high performant, scalable communication system conforming to real time conditions. However, current studies imply, that OWCs still lack the necessary performance and robustness level for most wireless applications in industrial production environments. In this approach several types of noises for free-space optical communication systems are empirically analysed in an accredited, exemplary industrial production environment. While the channel noise is usually modelled by the signal to noise ratio it is found that real environments cannot be approximated by the usual static additive white gaussian noise. In this approach the accumulated measurement data represents the spectrum variation of different locations and times relating to different types of noise sources. The implementation in a total channel model allows the optimization of OWC designs like the channel access scheme or the modulation type concerning performance and robustness. Furthermore an additional measurement setup is proposed, capable of measuring and classifying existing noise sources in order to serve the design of OWC systems in industrial production environments.

Analysis of industrial production environments and derivation of a novel channel model towards optical wireless communication

Today, automation suppliers need to provide a large variety of field devices because one device is especially designed to provide a limited and static range of functionalities, which are fixed at the delivery time of the device. This is expensive for both customers and device suppliers. To overcome this situation, device functionalities needs to be adapted or extended on demand according to the changing market requirements, even if the devices have already been delivered to customers. In this work, an app-based approach is proposed and evaluated to serve that purpose. This approach is adapted from the smart device industry and it is used to provide software-based functionalities for field devices as an enabling technology in the context of reconfigurable manufacturing systems. This paper describes the essential elements of such an approach with a practical perspective.

An app-based approach for reconfigurable field devices

In Germany, as of 2017, a new smart metering infrastructure based on high security and privacy requirements will be deployed. It provides interfaces to connect meters for different commodities, to allow end users to retrieve the collected measurement data, to connect to the metering operators, and to connect Controllable Local Systems (CLSs) that establish a TLS secured connection to third parties in order to exchange data or for remote controlling of energy devices. This paper aims to connect industrial machines as CLS devices since it shows that the demands and main ideas of remotely controlled devices in the Smart Grid context and Industrial Cloud Applications match on the communication level. It describes the general architecture of the Smart Metering infrastructure in Germany, introduces the defined roles, depicts the configuration process on the different organizational levels, demonstrates the connection establishment and the initiating partners, concludes on the potential industrial use cases of this infrastructure, and provides open questions and room for further research.

Jurgen Jasperneite

Papers

Sicherheits- und Datenschutzanforderungen an Smart Grid-Technologien

Guest Editorial Special Section on Distributed Computer Systems in Industry

Analysis of industrial production environments and derivation of a novel channel model towards optical wireless communication

An app-based approach for reconfigurable field devices

Implementation of industrial cloud applications as controlled local systems (CLS) in a smart grid context