- By Vivek Bhargava
- December 28, 2023
- InTech Magazine
- Feature
Summary
Wired networks are “legacy” solutions that provide a solid foundation for mission-critical applications. This feature originally appeared in the December 2023 issue of InTech digital magazine.
In the era of Industry 4.0, where machines communicate, automate and optimize processes, the need for robust and reliable networking solutions has never been more critical. Industrial Ethernet has emerged as the backbone of industrial connectivity, enabling seamless communications, enhancing efficiencies and paving the way for advances in various sectors.
Legacy connectivity methods such as serial, twisted pair, coaxial and other proprietary protocols and methods, are now giving way to standards-based Ethernet. This transition is being driven by several key factors such as the need for interoperability across diverse industrial devices, higher bandwidth for data-intensive communications, better integration with information technology (IT)-driven enterprise systems, lower costs incurred in using standard rather than proprietary products and more.
Today’s Ethernet can do much more than provide high-speed connectivity at lower costs. This article presents five key areas where Ethernet-based industrial switches can power smart operations of the future.
1. High-performance infrastructure
Industrial Ethernet helps build a highly resilient, high-performance infrastructure. More than the enterprise, industrial operations rely on continuous uninterrupted operations to meet production targets and deliver services. Network downtime or interruption can result in decreased productivity leading to significant financial losses.
Today’s industrial Ethernet combines enterprise-grade performance and scalability with industrial-strength reliability and resilience. It features multi- and 10-gigabit interfaces to connect high-bandwidth devices and features high switching capacity to handle many connected devices. Industrial Ethernet also enables software-defined networking for greater flexibility, scalability and programmability in network infrastructure.
Several Ethernet-based redundancy protocols are used in industrial networks to provide high availability and fault tolerance. These include high-availability seamless redundancy (HSR) that uses redundant paths for Ethernet frames allowing for seamless failovers in case of link or node failures.
Similarly, parallel redundancy protocol (PRP) is another standard where the transmitting mode sends duplicate frames over two independent channels and the receiving node discards any duplicates it receives, ensuring data integrity and protecting against packet loss.
Technologies such as device level ring (DLR) connect devices in a ring and allow for simple and cost-effective implementation without additional switches. Resilient Ethernet protocol (REP) provides a sub-50 millisecond failover using a loop-free topology with backup paths.
2. Built-in cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is top-of-mind for industries. Visibility into connected devices, their interactions and vulnerabilities is the first step in securing industrial assets. This visibility can be gained from deep packet inspection (DPI) of network traffic. Traditionally, industrial networks have duplicated traffic from their switches to feed into offboard DPI servers. However, this leads to extra cost and complexity in the network. Today’s Ethernet provides a much simpler solution. Industrial switches can themselves perform DPI and obtain visibility and security insights as noted in Figure 1.
Visibility informs the second step in securing operations. Once you know the identity of assets and traffic patterns, you can define access policies that selectively allow or deny traffic between assets, control systems and external entities. These policies segment the network and place limits around groups of assets creating zones and conduits as required by the ISA/IEC62443 security standards, restricting unimpeded flow of potential malware through the operations.
While zones and conduits can be carved through extensive placement of firewalls, it is much simpler for the industrial Ethernet switches themselves to enforce access policies, thereby avoiding the extra cost and complexity.
3. Zero-trust network access
Industrial Ethernet can enable zero-trust network access (ZTNA). The ability to access industrial assets remotely, especially ones that may be geographically distributed, can be invaluable. Using it, operations staff, vendors or contractors can log in to those assets without costly site visits to monitor, debug, configure or otherwise manage them.
The solution for such access has traditionally been virtual private networks (VPNs). The drawback for VPNs is that they are an always-on solution with all-or-nothing access to operational technology (OT) assets. Industrial organizations are starting to deploy zero trust network access (ZTNA) solutions as alternatives to always-on VPNs.
ZTNA is a security service that verifies users and grants access only to specific resources at specific times based on identity and context policies. ZTNA solutions consist of a trust broker, typically a cloud service, that mediates connections between remote users and OT assets by working with a ZTNA gateway onsite, responsible for creating a communication path to the assets and an outbound connection to the trust broker, as shown in Figure 2.
Existing ZTNA solutions deploy gateways in the industrial demilitarized zone (iDMZ). But in distributed field networks, there is generally no space to install dedicated gateway hardware. And in larger industrial networks, where IP addresses are often reused, many OT assets sit behind network address translation (NAT) boundaries and are not visible from the iDMZ. Industrial Ethernet switches are ideally suited to be ZTNA gateways because of their proximity to OT assets, saving the undesirable cost and burden of installing dedicated ZTNA gateway hardware in each location.
4. Power over Ethernet
Industrial Ethernet provides PoE and helps make operations more sustainable. Originally gaining popularity in enterprise IT settings, power over Ethernet (PoE) is becoming increasingly common in industrial settings. However, there are significant differences between the two environments.
Industrial environments can be harsh, with extreme temperatures, dust and vibrations. Both Industrial Ethernet equipment acting as power sourcing equipment (PSE) and powered devices (PD) must be ruggedized, allow for higher power levels, adhere to stricter safety standards and be more resistant to electrical noise and interference from electromagnetic fields.
Finally, power to critical devices in industrial environments must be maintained to avoid downtime or safety issues and therefore the PSE must be able to prioritize power to specified ports, maintain power through reboots and be able to report outages or overdrawn conditions for corrective actions.
Advances in IEEE PoE standards that define power supply levels from 15.4 W to 90 W have allowed an increasing array of devices that can be powered from sensors, IP-phones, surveillance cameras, POS systems and laptops; to high-wattage and high-bandwidth devices such as Wi-Fi 6/6E access points, digital signage, LiDAR equipment, 4KUHD PTZ cameras and displays.
Because of its importance to operations continuity, deploying PoE in industrial environments comes with important considerations. These include provisioning power backups and redundancies, heat dissipation and cooling, power management and monitoring and more.
Industrial Ethernet switches must be able to provide relevant telemetry to a central analytics dashboard to visualize the deployment, obtain insights and resolve potential issues before they disrupt operations.
Industrial Ethernet with PoE can also help in sustainability of operations. Not only does it eliminate the need to run extra copper cabling and steel conduits to each PD, but it also avoids ac-dc conversion at the device—which could save up to 20 percent of energy that would otherwise be lost. Power can also be more easily controlled by programmatic suspension of power to nonessential devices when not in use. Finally, ruggedized industrial Ethernet equipment can be placed in non-climatecontrolled environments, saving cooling costs.
5. Enabling Industry 4.0
Industrial Ethernet enables Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 promises to transform operations by integrating advanced technologies such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), artificial intelligence (AI), big data analytics, cloud computing and robotics into industrial processes. It can help increase productivity and improve product quality through realtime data-driven decisions.
However, all this is possible only when accurate, timely process data is made available to the software applications in the data centers and cloud. Industrial Ethernet, as the conduit for network traffic, can extract relevant data, transform it into the required format, and securely transfer it to these applications.
Industrial Ethernet assists in faster datadriven decision-making. While applications in the data center and the cloud, fed by data from operations, can help derive insights and make operations decisions, there are timesensitive use cases where these decisions need to be made on the spot.
For example, in autonomous vehicles, faster capabilities can enable the real-time processing of data from sensors and cameras to make instant decisions and respond quickly to changes in environment. It can also support various smart city applications such as intelligent traffic management, public safety systems, environmental monitoring, etc.
In industrial settings, processing data locally can help monitor and control machinery and optimize processes. Traditionally, industrial PCs have been deployed to process data. However, edge-computing capabilities within Industrial Ethernet equipment can analyze data more efficiently, saving money, complexity and delays incurred in transit to offboard applications.
Industrial transformation
Industrial Ethernet has proven to be a critical component in driving transformation in various industries. Its ability to provide fast, reliable and secure communication has resulted in increased productivity, improved efficiency and enhanced decision-making processes. Industrial Ethernet has enabled the adoption of advanced technologies such as IIoT and Industry 4.0. This transformative power has led to optimized operations, reduced downtime, and ultimately, significant cost savings for businesses across the globe.
All figures courtesy of Cisco Industrial IoT
This feature originally appeared in the December 2023 issue of InTech digital magazine.
About The Author
Vivek Bhargava is product marketing manager at Cisco Industrial IoT. Working in the industrial IoT marketing group, Bhargava focuses on industrial switching, industrial security, and the manufacturing sector. In this role, he works to raise awareness of how Cisco IIoT networking and security solutions form the critical backbone of the modern industrial enterprise, and why such solutions are essential for realizing the promise of Industry 4.0.
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