TSDSI-M2M-TR-UCD_Industrial Automation-V0.1.0-20150306
Technical Report
Machine-to-Machine Communication (M2M)
Study on Indian use cases
Industrial Automation
Intentionally left blank to fill information on:
- Secretariat address
- Editor with address
- Chair with address
- Vice-Chair with address
- Copyright information
Intentionally left blank to fill information on:
- Standard number
- Standard mnemonic
- Version [for status information]
- Draft date, if not published [for status information
- Publication date of the standard [for status information]
Intentionally left Blank for Abstract
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Purpose
3. Intended Audience
4. Scope
5. Definitions, Abbreviations, Acronyms
6. Use Cases for Industrial Automation
6.1 Overview
6.2 Industrial Automation Application Areas
6.2.1 Utilities
6.2.2 Oil and Gas Pipelines – Cellular Gateways
6.2.3 Smart Building Applications
6.2.4 Automated Yard Management
6.2.5 Renewable Energy Resources – Solar Power Generation
6.2.6 Remote Equipment Management
6.2.7 Other Use Cases
6.2.7.1 Robotic Arms
6.2.7.2 Liquid Flow Management
6.2.7.3 Production Management
Annexure - SCADA
Annexure - Oil & Gas Pipelines Cellular Gateways
Annexure – Smart Building Applications
Document Revision History
1 INTRODUCTION
Communication infrastructure is the foundation of Process Automation, Instrumentation and Control industry, an industry that has been in existence for more than 50 years. Sensor/transducer based Remote Monitoring systems, and PLC/SCADA systems with remote control capabilities have always used dedicated communication wires or wireless (Radio/Satellite etc.) systems for providing connectivity between the end devices in the field and the control centre. In fact, several communication protocols were created in the Industrial Automation space.
On a different plane, the scorching pace of innovations in IT technologies has led to “commoditization” of devices. These devices are intelligent, have small and flexible form factor and, more importantly, can “talk”, by integrating standard communication chips/modules of any communication technology, almost in a plug and play fashion. Therefore, the world is now witnessing emergence of devices that can communicate with each other – thus elevating automation and control engineering industry to a new level altogether – the M2M/IoT.
Industries, especially in manufacturing and process industries have been leveraging the power of “connectivity enhanced automation systems” to create solutions for improving operational efficiencies and productivity of their assets and processes. They have created industry specific standards and protocols in automation space. While many of these standards are defined at the higher levels of the OSI model, the features have been standardized pre-assuming a certain communication layer to service the application.
Till date, in most applications implemented in India in any vertical segment, the communication infrastructure selected is a captive system that is used dedicatedly for the specific solution. In a few cases, in larger organizations, certain dedicated channels of the corporate communication backbone infrastructure (if it exists) are earmarked for such solutions.
The primary reason for this is driven by the need for a safe and secure operational regime, instead of operational efficiency improvement. Automation solutions do not have a good business case in several industry segments in India (especially in Smart Grids space) due to the high TCO (CAPEX +OPEX) of the required communication systems, if these are dedicated for the solution. Even a common communication backbone at the overall organization level for all business, automation and IT needs does not make the solutions financially attractive.
As the IT sector grows in maturity in terms of robust engineering practices, creation and usage of IT tools as “products”, user organizations are willing to migrate to digital shared platforms (example - cloud) in a Platform as a service (PaaS) mode. PaaS platforms help reduce the cost of service to individual clients and at the same time brings bare minimum standard features across all vertical segments. The time is ripe for offering a common communication platform (the “information” highway) for applications from various vertical segments (the “data” vehicles), in order to bring down the TCO of the communication piece to affordable levels.
This brings the need for independent M2M platforms that can offer content transport capabilities in a seamless, reliable and affordable manner with universal standards for content handling and quality of service.
An independent M2M platform, that is based on a single or heterogeneous communication technology on the one hand, with a set of standard common services (OSS, BSS and much more), and standardized device interfaces, can be leveraged by multiple service providers, multiple user organizations and for multiple applications. Availability of standard interfaces on the communication and device facing sides of such a platform, will foster innovations in the communication and device segments, with assured quality of service.
One of the major responsibilities of TSDSI’s M2M group is to define an M2M framework to meet the above objectives. As part of this exercise, the group has undertaken study of various vertical segments to extract business requirements from an M2M/IoT platform perspective. This has helped the team bring out common requirements of all verticals, which in turn will become candidates for M2M platform functionalities. This document is a compilation of application use cases in various verticals studied by the team.
2 PURPOSE
IoT/M2M market is growing at the rate of approximately 8% CAGR (by no. of devices) and is expected to touch 20 billion No. of connected devices by 2020. As on date, “niche” services/solutions are being offered by players in key verticals in India as an end-to-end offering encompassing the devices, communication system and the controlling IT application. A few of these are – Automated Meter Reading in Power and Water Utilities, Electronic Toll Collection Systems in Transportation, OBD based vehicle eCall solutions in Vehicles, Telemedicine in Health, Remote Automated Cell Tower Monitoring, Street light Management systems in Smart City, Home security and Surveillance systems, Building Management Systems, Automated manufacturing in Industrial Automation etc. These qualify as M2M offerings in the specialized vertical segment.
In order to define a M2M service platform that can serve the needs of different verticals, it is important to understand the functional requirements of these verticals in sufficient depth for the appreciation of architecturally significant requirements.
TSDSI’s M2M group has undertaken study of various vertical segments to extract business requirements from an M2M/IoT perspective. This is intended to help cross pollinate useful features across different verticals for the overall benefit of the user community. Purpose of this exercise is to extract common requirements of all verticals which in turn will become candidates for M2M platform functionalities.
It also brings out the India specific implementation experience and learnings. This will help aspiring M2M platform providers to gain an understanding of the drivers for successful field implementation in the Indian ecosystem. It is believed that, India geographical market itself is a representative sample for emerging economies. Therefore, a framework that is defined to address this segment, will help to serve the needs of emerging economies market too.
3 INTENDED AUDIENCE
M2M Platform Solution providers (Solution and Technology Architects), Regulatory bodies and Policy makers.
Entrepreneurs who aspire to create products/Apps. for deployment on M2M platforms.
Underlying network service providers from various communication technology segments.
4 SCOPE
The document gives a brief overview of M2M use case applications in Industrial Automation vertical for India geographical market.
It is intended to serve as a reference point for Architects, policy makers and Regulatory bodies to understand India specific requirements and/or drivers in each area.
A few “representative” use cases are elaborated in detail describing actors and scenarios with call flows. Architecturally considerations that are significant from an M2M perspective, ranging from information exchange interface requirements, data traffic, performance requirements, deployment considerations from Indian context are covered. Regulatory and statutory compliance requirements, currently prevalent standards are also provided. The elaborated use cases describe Indian Ecosystem specific aspects. Any foreseen constraints and challenges in such implementations are also described.
Use cases selected for elaboration were based on the criteria of their perceived architectural significance on the M2M platform and/or market potential. Architectural significance covers differentiated data requirements and India geography specific deployment requirements.
The list of use cases provided in this document is not meant to be exhaustive, rather, it is a representative of the verticals, compiled bases on contributions provided by TSDSI members and subject matter experts in this domain area. Some use cases contain evolving/future requirements also.
Some use cases can “belong” to more than one vertical. These have been described in the vertical that is currently championing its implementation in India.
5 DEFINITIONS, ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS
M2M
/Machine to Machine
SCADA
/Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
6 USE CASES FOR INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION
6.1 Overview
Industrial automation systems utilize M2M communication to monitor and control remote and local facilities and equipment to increase operational efficiency. Examples of automation equipment can range from simple I/O modules, sensors, Distribution Control systems (DCS), Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) to Industrial Robots. It is increasingly common to use wireless communication in monitoring applications. Remote service maintenance and diagnostics of machinery and industrial robots is a major application within factory automation and real-time monitoring of remote facilities and equipment are one of the most common applications within process automation.
The idea of the Internet of Things (IoT) has been creating a great deal of excitement in the computing and communications industry for some time. Currently, the industrial automation industry is starting to explore and implement IoT concepts and technology. The IoT vision is of a massively instrumented world of intelligent sensors (analog and digital) and actuators (analog and digital) communicating using IP to improve performance and efficiency. Internet protocol is the primary protocol in the Internet layer of the Internet protocol suite, delivering packets from source hosts to destination hosts solely based on the IP addresses in packet headers. There are a broad range of IoT applications that can be improved with sensing and control, including health care, traffic control, vehicle safety, energy use, agriculture, and manufacturing. This vision includes coupling massive sensing and control with big data and analytics to accomplish advanced levels of optimization and efficiency. Industrial automation has a history of adopting commercial technology as it becomes mainstream, and applying IoT technologies to improve performance and enable better integration with business systems is a logical step.
IoT applied to automation uses this technology to streamline, collapse, and create system architectures that are more affordable, responsive, and effective. The goal is seamless communications and interaction from process industry’s field input/output (I/O), including sensors, actuators, analyzers, drives, vision, video, and robotics, for increased performance and flexibility. This revolution will drive intelligence to the edge of the system with the ultimate goal of all industrial devices supporting IP, including field I/O. Wireless IP devices, including smartphones, tablets, and sensors, are already being used in manufacturing. The wireless sensor I/O open standards WirelessHART, Profibus, Modbus, ISA100, and WIA-PA are all IP devices supporting the latest IPv6 standards, which leverage larger address spaces and improved cybersecurity standards.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is believed to transform and reinvent sectors that account for nearly two thirds of the global economy. It can do to the industrial sector what electricity did in the previous century. Currently, IIoT is already helping to improve productivity, reducing costs and enhancing worker safety. Example – at an oil refinery factory, workers wear wireless gas detector that tracks exposure to harmless gases. Factory managers can monitor status, location and safety of its workers from a remote control centre. Sensors embedded in machinery continuously monitor their performance, raising alerts proactively for need for maintenance. Workers can control hazardous sites remotely by sending in remotely controllable machines to these areas.
Industrial Automation solutions consists of 3 broad areas – Devices, Infrastructure and Analytics.
Devices
Devices need to be intelligent. That is the starting point. All the devices must to be able to run, collect data, understand their current status or health, communicate with other systems and devices, and react to configuration or operational changes securely. Devices need to be able to run autonomously or as part of a larger system. The devices in Industrial Automation Environment can be broadly classified in to
Sensors: Conventional sensors with added communication features, Wireless sensors etc. Example: Thermal, Voltage, Current, Vibration Sensors, Pressure Transducers
Actuators: Devices like valves and robotic arms that control processes based on the parameters fed to them
Controllers: Programmable logic controllers with logics implemented to control processes based on measurements received through the I/O modules using the configured parameters. Resulting control outputs drive the processes through the I/O modules.
Infrastructure
There needs to be an infrastructure that supports the devices. The infrastructure is more than plugging in a TCP/IP cable. It contains built-in security and can be adapted for different environments. It has communications, localized storage, remote storage, and data access. A key element of this is the contextual understanding of the data obtained from devices.
Analytics
Analytics and optimization are the third component. The infrastructure uses models to transform the data into actionableinformation. Analytics drive the optimization. The optimization can be either localized or systematic, and it can be manual or automated. The analytics are dependent on the implementation and can run the gamut from using the information to make better, faster decisions all the way to self-healing devices, effectively transforming the information to knowledge. Everything on the IoT must first be capable of operating safely and securely, and then adding business value. The distribution of information is another key element. Having actionable information available is not helpful unless it can be acted on in a timely fashion. This could mean distributing it to individuals inside the organization, other systems in the network, other devices, or back to the device itself. There needs to be an organization to consume the information produced. Too often we focus on the device functionality without understanding the business context. Having information available is, again, meaningless without a purpose. The organization sets the objectives or desired behavior and is responsible for maintaining and validating the status. Too often there are business changes made without realizing the impact on the industrial process control systems. Also, all of the above points need to be achieved cost effectively, or they will not be accepted as required by an organization.