Siemens Industrial Network 4.0 User Manual

Technical articleFachartikel

Industrial

Network 4.0

Software solutions make a significant contribution towards saving costs

Digitalization generates a multitude of customer benefits, but also poses challenges for industrial communication networks. Security-relevant standardizations – such as IEC 62443 or IEC 61850 – also play an increasingly important role and must be taken into account for a sustainable industrial network. Software solutions make a significant contribution towards that – reducing commissioning times and maintenance phases.

An industrial network for different applications

To achieve the goal of making industrial companies future-proof, new ways and possibilities have to be created. These begin with the expansion of the networking of sensors that are to transmit production data for further processing to central databases (e.g., cloud) or can also increase flexibility (e.g., provide data for different applications). These are just two examples that have developed due to digitalization. In this context, the topic of virtualization should not be ignored, either. Virtualization offers the key advantage for industrial facilities, and generally the applications of the future, to gain greater flexibility and scalability. For example, new applications can easily be created via additional virtual instances and exchange data with the industrial facilities. An industrial communication network will also have to deal with all of these issues in the future. Furthermore, industrial communication networks must offer a high degree of flexibility and adaptability in order to meet the challenges of the future.

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Collaboration between IT and OT worlds – lowering investment costs for industrial facilities.

Compliance with IEC standards

Especially in industrial communication networks, though, there are additional requirements. There are additional standards existing in various industries that must be adhered to (such as IEC 61158 / IEC 62443 in the field of machine construction and manufacturing and process industries, or IEC 61850 in electrical switchgear). These standards also include specifications that in particular affect the definition of the network architecture. Take for instance the IEC 62443 standard, where the topic of strict network separation between the corporate network (IT network) and the production network (Operational Technology – OT network) is described. Another example is the IEC 61850 specification, which defines corresponding

communication protocols (such as MMS for data communication and GOOSE telegrams).

All of these aspects need to be considered when creating a network infrastructure for an industrial communication network. In addition, the topic of “security” – i.e., network security – must of course not be disregarded. In many cases, however, it is neglected as it is considered to be too cumbersome and too complicated. But there are reasons why such security-related approaches exist – including user management, encrypted data protocols, and secure authentication. Paramount to all of these security requirements is primarily the protection of industrial networks against unauthorized access and manipulation.