An approach for failure recognition in IP-based industrial control networks and systems

Abstract

Industrial control networks (ICNs) and systems support robust communications of devices in process control or manufacturing environments. ICN proprietary protocols are being migrated to Ethernet/IP networks in order to merge various different types of networks into a single common network. ICNs are deployed in mission-critical operations, which require a maximum level of network stability. Network stability is often described using several categories of network performance quality-of-service metrics, such as throughput, delay, and loss measurements. The question arises as to whether these network performance metrics are sufficient to run valuable diagnostics of ICN components and their communications. Any abnormal decision with respect to typical IP traffic behavior does not necessarily coincide with ICN fault cases. A precise and specific diagnostic technique for ICNs is required to remove the uncertainty in detecting problems. However, existing Ethernet/IP diagnosis tools have not been able to fully handle fault symptoms and mainly focus on network diagnostics rather than process or device diagnostics. This paper demonstrates that the absence of advanced fault diagnosis techniques leads to the development of new methodologies that are suitazble for ICN. We describe unique traffic characteristics and categorize the faults of ICN. We also propose a fault diagnosis, prediction, and adaptive decision methodologies, and verify them with real-world ICN data from the steel-making company POSCO. Our experience in developing the fault diagnosis system provides a firm guideline to understand the fault management mechanisms in large ICNs. Copyright (C) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.