Performance Optimization in Transition Toward Open Industrial Control Systems

Digital transformation implies the comprehensive availability of data generated by the underlying process through-out the entire enterprise. In this regard, production facilities, i.e. industrial control systems (ICS) face significant challenges arising from the gradual transition toward a smart factory concept under the Industry 4.0 paradigm. This is particularly emphasized on the production floor which includes legacy devices with a lifetime spanning decades. Thus, a gradual and partial ICS transformation is required through multiple iterations over a long period of time. Such transition results in parallel data flows and increased network traffic over TCP/IP due to the partial integration of legacy systems into the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) network. In this paper, we propose traffic load reduction via optimal structuring of data flow sent via TCP/IP network. We have validated our approach by conducting performance tests on real hardware devices evaluating the device behavior in relation to different payloads and data transmission cycles.