Communications and Protocols Used in Industrial Automation

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Industrial Electronics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2023) | Viewed by 5387

Special Issue Editor

Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics (DIIIE), University of L'Aquila, I-67100 L'Aquila, Italy
Interests: machine learning; artificial intelligence; control systems; signal and power integrity; electromagnetic compatibility; electrical drives; power line communications; high-voltage transmission lines
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is well known that, nowadays, communication protocols are constantly evolving to satisfy the needs of end-users’ applications as well as modern industrial automation requirements. Many efforts have been made, especially in recent decades, where a range of successful industrial protocols have been developed.

Over the past decade, even more efforts have been undertaken in the design of efficient, scalable, and multipurpose communication protocols, aiming to anticipate new needs arising from the advent of the Industry 4.0 revolution and looking forward to envisage "smart factories".

Most of the challenges that have to be faced in order to obtain reliable and efficient Industrial IoT (IIoT) solutions include the difficulties linked to certain peculiar aspects such as, for instance: the aggregation of several heterogeneous elements and networks (e.g., the connectivity of old SCADA systems with the newborn IoT architectures, i.e., the interoperability); the security level of newly developed communication protocols; and the overall energy efficiency of the communication infrastructure.

This Special Issue aims to offer the opportunity to engineers, scientists, and experts of the field to exchange state-of-the-art developments in the field of industrial communication protocols for IIoT applications and, in general, for modern industrial automation, with a preferential focus on selected topics.

The covered topics span from the theory behind the development of more energy-efficient, secure and interoperable protocols to all the practical aspects linked with the analysis of real industrial case studies, the development of innovative tools or solutions, the development of more advanced algorithms or enhanced protocol stacks, and more efficient time synchronization and/or scheduling mechanisms.

The Special Issue aims to collect contributions targeted (but not limited) to the following topics:

  • Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Cyber–Physical Systems (CPSs);
  • Advances in Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANs) for IIoT environments;
  • Industrial network protocols and security, industrial automated control systems, real-time industrial networks, automotive networks;
  • Interoperability and integration in IIoT and Industry 4.0;
  • Modeling and performance evaluation of communication systems and architectures;
  • Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications (OneM2M, OPC, UA, DDS,...)
  • Advances concerning the layers of industrial communication protocols (field, control, supervisory and execution);
  • Novel network technologies applied for IIoT (TSN, 5G, SDN etc.);
  • Distributed systems and low-power wireless routing protocols;
  • RFID and emerging smart sensors;
  • Data security and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs).

Dr. Carlo Olivieri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • industrial networks
  • IIoT
  • machine-to-machine
  • wireless sensor and actuator networks
  • wireless routing protocols
  • distributed systems
  • intrusion detection systems
  • smart sensors

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 754 KiB  
Article
Communication Time Optimization of Register-Based Data Transfer
by Andrzej Bożek and Dariusz Rzonca
Electronics 2023, 12(24), 4917; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12244917 - 06 Dec 2023
Viewed by 502
Abstract
The data exchange according to communication protocols used in automation is often based on registers (e.g., Modbus). Values of many variables can be sent in a single frame, provided that they are placed in adjacent registers. If the required registers are not adjacent, [...] Read more.
The data exchange according to communication protocols used in automation is often based on registers (e.g., Modbus). Values of many variables can be sent in a single frame, provided that they are placed in adjacent registers. If the required registers are not adjacent, it may sometimes be advantageous to transmit more registers than required, along with redundant ones, to minimize the number of frames and the total transmission time. The article analyzes the possibilities of improving time parameters and determining the optimal grouping based on the arrangement of registers. Various existing optimization approaches such as mixed integer linear programming, constraint programming, and a tabu search are analyzed, and several new simple deterministic algorithms (greedy or heuristic rule-based) are proposed. The results obtained were confirmed experimentally. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communications and Protocols Used in Industrial Automation)
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19 pages, 6593 KiB  
Article
Development Board Implementation and Chip Design of IEEE 1588 Clock Synchronization System Applied to Computer Networking
by Yan-Kai Lan, Yee-Shao Chen, Ting-Chao Hou, Bo-Lin Wu and Yuan-Sun Chu
Electronics 2023, 12(10), 2166; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12102166 - 09 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1633
Abstract
With the vigorous development of industrial automation and the Internet of things, the transmission of data is more dependent on immediacy, so network devices have higher and higher requirements for time synchronization accuracy. The clock source of common network devices is provided by [...] Read more.
With the vigorous development of industrial automation and the Internet of things, the transmission of data is more dependent on immediacy, so network devices have higher and higher requirements for time synchronization accuracy. The clock source of common network devices is provided by the transistor oscillator in the server, but the oscillator will change with factors such as aging and temperature, and it cannot be guaranteed that the oscillator in the server will work at the same frequency. Time synchronization can be achieved by technologies such as IRIG-B, NTP, or IEEE 1588 (PTP), but the hardware cost of building IRIG-B is high, and NTP has the lowest cost, but it can only provide time accuracy from milliseconds to microseconds. PTP can provide sub-microsecond or even nanosecond time precision. It is a system of time synchronization mechanisms through Ethernet transmission. In this article, we first propose a time synchronization system using the development board and PDP protocol. On the Xilinx Zynq-7000 SOC platform of Petalinux, we implement the hardware solution of Linux PTP. The hardware time stamp is 20 ns. To improve the accuracy, the congenital frequency error between the oscillators must be considered. Therefore, a PTP auxiliary time stamp with dynamic frequency compensation is proposed and designed into a chip. Experimental results show that at 45 nm (TN40G) it can operate at 370 MHz and achieve 2.7 ns resolution, which can be applied to more demands. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communications and Protocols Used in Industrial Automation)
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10 pages, 583 KiB  
Article
Detecting Data Anomalies from Their Formal Specifications: A Case Study in IoT Systems
by Benjamin Aziz
Electronics 2023, 12(3), 630; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12030630 - 27 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 841
Abstract
We present in this paper a new method in detecting anomalies in datasets representing systems behaviour, which is based on comparing a dataset to the data blueprint of the system representing its normal behaviour. This method removes some of the need for applying [...] Read more.
We present in this paper a new method in detecting anomalies in datasets representing systems behaviour, which is based on comparing a dataset to the data blueprint of the system representing its normal behaviour. This method removes some of the need for applying complex machine learning algorithms that aim at detecting abnormalities in such datasets and gives a more assured outcome of the presence of abnormalities. Our method first models a system using the formal language of the π-calculus, and then applies an abstract interpretation that ultimately generates an abstract multiset representing the messages exchanged in the system model. We term this multiset as the data blueprint of the system, and it represents the normal behaviour expected. We apply this method to the case of a recent study in literature, which attempts to analyse normal and abnormal behaviour in datasets representing runs of the MQTT protocol, both under attack and no attack conditions. We show that our method is able to detect these conditions in an easier and more straightforward manner than the original case study attempts to. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communications and Protocols Used in Industrial Automation)
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Review

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14 pages, 512 KiB  
Review
Analysis of Cyber Security Aspects of Data Transmission in Large-Scale Networks Based on the LoRaWAN Protocol Intended for Monitoring Critical Infrastructure Sensors
by Grzegorz Czeczot, Izabela Rojek and Dariusz Mikołajewski
Electronics 2023, 12(11), 2503; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12112503 - 01 Jun 2023
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1356
Abstract
Cyber security is nowadays synonymous with the reliability of elements connected to the internet. Better control of factories, security systems or even individual sensors is possible through the use of Internet of Things technology. The security of the aforementioned structures and the data [...] Read more.
Cyber security is nowadays synonymous with the reliability of elements connected to the internet. Better control of factories, security systems or even individual sensors is possible through the use of Internet of Things technology. The security of the aforementioned structures and the data they transmit has been a major concern in the development of IoT solutions for wireless data transmission. If we add to this prospect of low-cost end devices, we can seriously consider implementing such solutions in critical infrastructure areas. This article aims to assess the state of the art and experience and identify the main risks and directions for further development in order to improve the cyber security situation of LoRaWAN-based networks. LoRaWAN meets the three key requirements of IoT applications (low cost, large-scale deployability, high energy efficiency) through an open standard and the construction of autonomous networks without third-party infrastructure. However, many research issues remain to be solved/improved such as resource allocation, link coordination, transmission reliability, performance and, above all, security. Thus, we have defined a research gap in the area of LoRaWAN security. The contribution of this work is to structure the knowledge in the field of LoRaWAN security, based on previous publications and our own experience, in order to identify challenges and their potential solutions. This will help move LoRaWAN security research to the next stage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communications and Protocols Used in Industrial Automation)
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