An IoT Architecture for Things from Industrial

Environment
Ioan Ungurean1,*, Nicoleta-Cristina Gaitan1 and Vasile Gheorghita Gaitan1
1
Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Departament of Computers, Electronics and Automation, Suceava, Romania
*
Corresponding author (E-mail :[email protected])

Abstract— Currently, there are significant changes in Fieldbuses, embedded systems and distributed systems come to
industrial process control, intelligent building control and provide enhanced support to implement such a vision.
automation technologies under pressure to reduce operating costs In a report from 2005, the International Telecommunication
and to integrate important advances in telecommunications and Union (ITU) suggested the following: "Internet of Things will
software. The software has become an essential factor in connect objects from the world, both in a sensory and
production and enterprise-wide systems. Internet connection has intelligent way" [7] [8]. By unifying various techno-logical
fundamentally changed the arrangements for monitoring and development methods, ITU identified four dimensions in IoT:
control, and the use of open/public standards and personal identifying elements ("labelling things"), sensor networks and
computer systems (PCs, tablets, smart phones) bring significant
wireless sensor networks ("things that feel"), embedded
benefits to their users and producers. This led to the definition of
Industry 4.0 that brings the concept of the Internet of Things in
systems ("things that think") and nanotechnology ("contraction
the industry. In this article, we want to present an Internet of things").
Things architecture based on OPC.NET specifications which can The terms of "things" in the IoT vision is very broad and
be used in both industrial environments and smart building. includes a variety of physical elements. The terms of things
Keywords – IoT, fieldbuses, Industry 4.0, OPC.NET. include portable personal items such as smart phones, tablets
and digital cameras. Furthermore, IoT includes elements of our
environments (be it home, car or office), and things equipped
I. INTRODUCTION with RFID tags (or other) connected to a gateway device (e.g.
Germany Trade & Invest highlighted the major role played smartphones). From those mentioned so far, a huge number of
by the "Internet of Things, Data and Service" [1] in the devices and things will be connected to the Internet, each
appearance of the fourth industrial revolution called "Industry providing data and information and some even services.
4.0" [2] or "Smart Factory" [3] that will transform the Industrial environment is integrated in the IoT concept in
manufacturing and production. "Industry 4.0" or "Smart [9]. In the IoT@Work, which have as main component the ENS
Factory" is a technological evolution from embedded systems (Event Notification Server) that aims to collect, organize and
to cyber-physical systems (CPS) [4]. Simplifying, Industry 4.0 provide, the production data for the shop floors. ENS provides
is the next (fourth) industrial revolution, which comes middleware communication model based on events such as
throughout the Internet of Things, Data and Service path. publish/ subscribe communication in order to support templates
Decentralization of the intelligence helps to create of the types' one-to -many and many to many and a dynamic
independent management of the processes and smart objects coupling of services, processes and devices.
interconnected throughout networks, and the interaction The model uses AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing
between the virtual and real world is a crucial new aspect on Protocol) protocol and architecture [10]. AMQP is open
manufacturing and production processes. standard application layer protocol for message oriented
Cyber-physical systems represent the next revolutionary middleware that defines: a model for a general-purpose
step based on existing embedded systems. Along with the modular framework which consists of components that routes
Internet and available online services and data, embedded and stores the messages, a set of rules for connecting these
systems join to form cyber-physical systems. CPS provides the components together, and the network wire-level protocol
basis for the Internet of Things creation, which in combination which allows clients to connect with the server and exchange
with the Internet of Services will enable Industry 4.0. These messages.
systems are relied on innovative technologies that transform In this article, we want to present an IoT architecture based
multiple applications, and the boundaries between the virtual on the OPC .NET specifications [12]. The IoT architecture is
and real world will disappear. As a result, these systems based on the model proposed in [11]. The remainder of this
promise to revolutionize our interaction with the physical world paper is organized as follows: Section II briefly presents
just as the Internet has transformed communication and OPC.NET, Section III presents the proposed architecture for
personal interaction. IoT, Section IV presents how fieldbuses are integrated in the
In the vision of the Internet of Thing (IoT) [5][6] network proposed architecture, in Section V we propose an gateway
connectivity is extended to electronic devices from very simple device for real time data acquisition, and the final conclusions
to the point where anything can connect to the Internet. are drawn in Section VI.

978-1-4799-2385-4/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

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 Sensor networks

OPC.NET4.0

OPC.NET4.0
OPC.NET4.0

Sensor networks
INTERNET

OPC.NET4.0
OPC.NET4.0

OPC.NET4.0
Sensor networks

Figure 1. The proposed architecture based on OPC .NET.

II. OPC .NET sensors (fieldbus) and sends commands to the actuators (such as
A group of OPC Foundation member companies wanted to relays, electro valves, etc.) that are connected on the fieldbuses.
develop SCADA application on .NET Framework and The data server application can acquire data from networks
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF). This group such as wireless networks [14] (ZigBee), fieldbuses used in the
developed OPC Express Interface, which define a set of smart buildings [14] (BACnet, LonWork) or fieldbuses used in
interfaces for communication between client and server industrial environments [15] (CANopen, Modbus, EtherCAT).
applications via WCF. These interfaces were based on OPC The HMI application is the client of data servers and can be
DA 3.0 specification. Furthermore, they developed a wrapper executed on PCs, tablets or smart phones. As communication
through which OPC.XI clients can access servers based on infrastructure, it is used the Internet and OPC.NET interfaces.
classical OPC specifications and DCOM technology. These Client applications displays in a graphical form the information
solutions have been adopted by the OPC Foundation and was read by the servers from the sensor networks. Furthermore, this
renamed OPC.NET (OPC.NET4.0 is developed for NET application can send commands to the server, commands that
Framework 4.0). [12] [13]. will reach the actuators.
OPC Foundation provides these interfaces in the form of From the point of view of the client application, the network
SDK that can be used to develop client and server applications from which data are acquired is transparent by using interface
in C#. This SDK includes WCF interfaces used for provided by the server. Through this interface, the client obtains
communication between clients and data servers. the address space of the server as a tree. Root node is the server
The utilization of WCF technology it can be achieved a high who has multiple networks. Each network has a number of
level of security because WCF can use different mechanisms devices, each device having one or more properties that may be
such as client authentication to connect to the server, security a temperature, a pressure, a relay, an analogue control, etc.
certificates to access the server, encrypting messages between Depending on the specific properties they may be read only,
client and server, or message in HTTP format. The connection write only or read write. The graphic user interface displays, in
between client and server is reliable, with her recovery various forms, the received data, and can be connected to one or
mechanisms when it falls [12] [13].. multiple data servers. Depending on the customer needs, the
Furthermore, in the SDK packet, there is a wrapper through interface can be used for the advanced data analysis and
which clients access servers based on classical OPC diagnoses, as well as for smart automatic decisions that can be
specifications. sent to the servers for implementation. The client application
allows the interconnection of “things” from fieldbuses. This
characteristic and the fact that the access to these “things” is
III. THE PROPOSED ARCHITECTURE done via the Internet, we can assert that proposed architecture
The architecture proposed by us is presented in Figure 1. may be an IoT architecture.
This architecture is based on OPC.NET specifications and it is An important issue is the communication between client and
built around of two main modules: the data server and the HMI server when the server is behind a router that uses NAT
application. The data server acquires data from a network of (network address translation). In order to achieve client-server

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communication, the router must be configured to perform port drivers. These drivers allow data acquisition from various types
forwarding on the port used for communication. The client of fieldbuses and storing them into a cache memory in order to
sends messages for connection initiation to the router who in be used by the data server.
turn sends them to the server. Communication port choosing is The OPC.NET data server is based on Windows
performed at the server configuration, and it usually uses a port Communication Foundation. This technology is focused on web
with a high value that is not assigned to a specific protocol from services and allows exposing data on the Internet. This server
the TCP/IP stack. provides transparent access to devices connected to the
fieldbuses through a local network or the Internet. This facility
IV. THE INTEGRATION FIELDBUSES IN THE PROPOSED is the first step towards the application of the "Internet of
ARCHITECTURE
Things" type. Basically, the virtual image of the industrial
process exposed by OPC .NET server can be viewed anywhere
The modules of the server application are shown in Figure in the world via the Internet. Access to OPC.NET server can be
2. The server is an application developed in .NET Framework secured using several mechanisms such as security certificates
4.0 that implements the interfaces defined in OPC .NET. or credentials formed from a username and a password.
The server performs an automatic modelling of address
spaces and allows easy modification of network configuration
(connecting new field devices). On the market, there are
dedicated data servers, but they use a particular fieldbus and use
OPC.NET4.0
Client
a modeller to update the address space at each change on
HMI Application fieldbus or connected devices. Sometimes, this method involves
recompiling the server to integrate new configuration. Our
server is unique because it provides an automatic modelling of
address space by scanning the fieldbuses and identifying the
connected devices.
Internet
V. GATEWAY FOR REAL-TIME DATA ACQUISITION AND
CONTROL
For real-time data acquisition we propose the development
Switch/Router
OPC.NET4.0 Client
of a gateway as embedded device type. This will be developed
HMI Application around a microcontroller and a real-time operating system. The
main features of this device are:
 It is a dedicated device based on an ARM Cortex M3
PC
PC microcontroller;
 It can be connected to a OPC.NET server via Modbus
OPC.NET4.0 Data Server TCP/IP or Modbus RTU protocols over Ethernet or
MODBUS CANOpen ZigBee
RS232;
Driver Driver Driver  It allows real-time data acquisition from several types
of fieldbuses namely ZigBee, CANOpen, EtherCAT,
Bacnet;
RS232 USB RS232
 For the development of this device, a real time
operating system is used;
RS232/485 USB - CAN ZigBee transceiver-
converter converter receiver  For each type of fieldbuses, it implements the
acquisition cycle specific to the protocol used.
Modbus CANOpen ZigBee
The proposed architecture for gateway device is presented
in Figure 3. Gateway provides the hardware resources needed
to implement the real-time application. The microcontroller
Field Devices/sensors must to provide a greater computing power at a low cost price.
At this time, Cortex M3 architecture provides sufficient
resources for such applications. In order to establish time we
Figure 2. The ahitecuture of the proposed OPC.NET data server. will choose a microcontroller with incorporated clock. To
implement the fieldbus protocols, the architecture was provided
For each fieldbus that is introduced in the system, server with:
instantiates a driver who interconnects the fieldbus with the
server. The drivers are developed as DLL library that provides  Serial ports for MODBUS RTU/ASCII (we use RS232
the same interface. Through this method, we can easily and RS485 standard line), ZigBee, BacNet protocols;
integrate new fieldbus without the need to recompile the  Ethernet ports that can ensure the implementation of
system. So far, we have developed drivers for Modbus RTU, the MODBUS TCP/IP and EtherCAT protocols;
Modbus TCP/IP, CANOpen fieldbuses and the drivers for the  CAN ports that allow the implementation of one or
ZigBee and EtherCAT fieldbuses are in the development stage more of the CANOpen protocol-based networks.

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 It is preferred, for reasons of reliability and space on the data acquired from the fieldbuses can be done using the Internet
PCB, the microcontroller to integrate on the chip as much of the infrastructure. Among of the specific elements of proposed
available resources. It will be an important criterion for architecture, we can highlight the unified method for integration
selecting a microcontroller. of new fieldbuses in OPC.NET data servers, that does not
To develop this device it will be used an open-source real- require updating/recompilation of the entire application and the
time operating system such as RTX (Real Time Executive). automatic modeling of the data server address space (automatic
This is a real-time kernel for the microcontrollers ARM7, generation of an image for an monitoring devices from
ARM9, and Cortex-M3 manufactured by Keil that is fieldbuses).
subsidiaries of the well-known manufacturers of
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