Data acquisition
and Ethernet-based communications, OPC UA is also rapidly gaining favour as a versatile open-source standard for transporting data between field devices and cloud-hosted applications. Offering a friendly user interface and eliminating the requirement for time- consuming device-specific programming, OPC UA addresses security concerns by incorporating measures including user authentication and security certificates to prevent unauthorised intrusions.
SECURITY FRONT AND CENTRE The exponentially increasing number of connected devices in today’s IoT world amplifies the risks of unauthorised access to corporate and industrial networks. Robust user authentication and instrument identification processes are essential in mitigating these risks and safeguarding equipment, operations, and data integrity. Implementing these and other measures can strengthen integral trust and security, with devices validating attempts at access by authorised clients, and clients themselves verifying that they are
communicating with the intended devices.
REDUCING COST AND COMPLEXITY Security and complexity have been traditional barriers to achieving seamless integration of instrumentation systems in the chemical process industry. Traditionally, dependence on a patchwork of communication protocols between different levels of the conventional automation ‘pyramid’ incurred significant overheads in converting and translating between different data types and structures. Today, vendor-led initiatives such as the Field Device Integration (FDI) standard are lowering the barriers to translating data between devices by reducing system complexity, deployment, and maintenance costs.
HIGH-SPEED DATA AND POWER Ethernet is increasingly emerging as a transformative enabler for efficient data collection and exchange in industrial environments. The recent standardisation of Ethernet APL (Advanced Physical Layer) enhances its appeal as the physical networking layer in challenging control and automation environments. Carrying high- speed data plus power over a familiar
twisted-pair cable, Ethernet APL brings other benefits relevant to the process industry including operation over long cable runs up to 1,000m and intrinsic safety for use in flammable atmospheres.
DRIVING EFFICIENCY AND SAFETY The possibility of achieving seamlessly integrated instrumentation systems is being steadily realised through technological advances that are helping chemical companies optimise plant performance through the efficient collection, exchange, and utilisation of production data.
Through innovation and dialogue between stakeholders including equipment vendors, standardisation bodies and end-users, longstanding areas of concern such as cybersecurity and the management of system complexity are also being steadily addressed.
ABB
www.abb.com
Instrumentation Monthly May 2024
45
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