Towards Mission-Critical Control at the Edge and Over 5G

With the emergence of industrial IoT and cloud computing, and the advent of 5G and edge clouds, there are ambitious expectations on elasticity, economies of scale, and fast time to market for demanding use cases in the next generation of ICT networks. Responsiveness and reliability of wireless communication links and services in the cloud are set to improve significantly as the concept of edge clouds is becoming more prevalent. To enable industrial uptake we must provide cloud capacity in the networks but also a sufficient level of simplicity and self-sustainability in the software platforms. In this paper, we present a research test-bed built to study mission-critical control over the distributed edge cloud. We evaluate system properties using a conventional control application in the form of a Model Predictive Controller. Our cloud platform provides the means to continuously operate our mission-critical application while seamlessly relocating computations across geographically dispersed compute nodes. Through our use of 5G wireless radio, we allow for mobility and reliably provide compute resources with low latency, at the edge. The primary contribution of this paper is a state-of-the art, fully operational test-bed showing the potential for merged IoT, 5G, and cloud. We also provide an evaluation of the system while operating a mission-critical application and provide an outlook on a novel research direction.Comment: June 18th: Upload the final version as submitted to IEEE Services [EDGE] 2018 on May 16th (updated abstract and some wording, results unchanged

A preliminary study of loop-time delays in IoT platforms: the ThingSpeak case

Trabalho apresentado em IEEE International Symposium on Sensing and Instrumentation in IoT Era, Agosto 2019, Lisboa, Portugal.IoT platforms play an important role on modern measurement systems because they allow the ingestion and processing of huge amounts of data (big data). Usually, these platforms run as a service on the cloud and are accessed through open programming interfaces based on ubiquitous internet protocols (such as HTTP). Data analysis is done in batch, from time to time, or when a pre-configured event is triggered. Most of the platforms can also actuate on the physical world by issuing messages, thus closing the loop ingestanalyze-actuate. The continuous investment on IoT platforms has made them extremely reliable and performant, wondering if they can be used to control physical processes. The paper contributes to this discussion by evaluating the loop-time – defined as the delay between ingestion and actuation – of the ThingSpeak platform. The measuring methodology is explained, results are presented, and conclusions are extracted.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Study of latencies in ThingSpeak

IoT platforms play an important role on modern measurement systems because they allow the ingestion and processing of huge amounts of data (big data). Given the increasing use of these platforms, it is important to characterize their performance and robustness in real application scenarios. The paper analyzes the ThingSpeak platform by measuring the latencies associated to data packets sent to cloud and replied back, and by checking the consistency of the returned data. Several experiments were done considering different ways to access the platform: REST API, MQTT API, and MQTT broker alone. For each experiment, the methodology is explained, results are presented, and conclusions are extracted. The REST and MQTT APIs have similar performances, with roundtrip times between 1 s and 3 s. The MQTT broker alone is more agile, with roundtrip times below 250 ms. In all cases, the up and down links are far from being symmetric, with the uplink delay showing higher variance than the downlink delay. The obtained results can serve as a reference for other IoT platforms and provide guidelines for application development.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Застосування віртуалізованої ІТ-інфраструктури при функціонуванні систем автоматизації технологічних об’єктів

Taking into account the global trends and experience of implementation of modern information technologies in production processes, with the aim of updating and increasing the competitiveness of Ukrainian industrial complexes, the issues and methods for using of hardware and software and technological solutions in the field of virtualization are considered.The main method of research is computer simulation – simulation of real automation systems (including server component) using the tools of virtualization (Microsoft Hyper V). The essence of the method is creation of a virtual environment (infrastructure), including primary and backup server with process control system and workstations. Virtual machines of automation systems are fully meet their physical analogues by heir characteristics.The ways of using of traditional automation systems, which are deployed on the basis of virtualization platform Hyper V, are considered. The main way of using of traditional software automation is their deployment on the basis of server operating system with support for one of the many virtualization technologies, such as: MS Hyper V, VMWare VSphere, Citrix Xen Server, and others.An opportunity of practical operation of automation systems on the basis of virtualized hardware and software server complex with the thin clients as workstations is proved for Experion PKS system and Honeywell C200 controller. The process control system is deployed in a virtualized environment on the basis of server (Windows Server 2012 R2) and normal (Windows 10) operating systems.The possible positive effect of implementation of modern IT infrastructure for technological objects is also analyzed. It lays in the fact of theoretically increase of fault tolerance level, practical simplification of system administration, and creation of bank for backup of virtual machines.This result is associated with a more rational and efficient use of capabilities of modern computer systems (CPU and RAM), data storage systems (using of RAID hard drives) and software.Исследованы возможные способы повышения уровня отказоустойчивости систем автоматизации и управления производственным процессом с использованием современных информационных технологий. Предложенная в работе методика объединяет применение аппаратных средств и программно-технологических решений в области виртуализации как базовой платформы для построения информационной инфраструктуры систем автоматизации технологических объектов. Виртуализация позволяет создавать копии программно-аппаратных сред систем автоматизации.Досліджено можливі способи збільшення рівня відмовостійкості систем автоматизації та управління виробничим процесом із застосуванням сучасних інформаційних технологій. Запропонована у роботі методика поєднує застосування апаратних засобів та програмно-технологічних рішень в області віртуалізації як базової платформи для побудови інформаційної інфраструктури систем автоматизації технологічних об’єктів. Віртуалізація дозволяє створювати копії програмно-апаратних середовищ систем автоматизації

Застосування віртуалізованої ІТ-інфраструктури при функціонуванні систем автоматизації технологічних об’єктів

Taking into account the global trends and experience of implementation of modern information technologies in production processes, with the aim of updating and increasing the competitiveness of Ukrainian industrial complexes, the issues and methods for using of hardware and software and technological solutions in the field of virtualization are considered.The main method of research is computer simulation – simulation of real automation systems (including server component) using the tools of virtualization (Microsoft Hyper V). The essence of the method is creation of a virtual environment (infrastructure), including primary and backup server with process control system and workstations. Virtual machines of automation systems are fully meet their physical analogues by heir characteristics.The ways of using of traditional automation systems, which are deployed on the basis of virtualization platform Hyper V, are considered. The main way of using of traditional software automation is their deployment on the basis of server operating system with support for one of the many virtualization technologies, such as: MS Hyper V, VMWare VSphere, Citrix Xen Server, and others.An opportunity of practical operation of automation systems on the basis of virtualized hardware and software server complex with the thin clients as workstations is proved for Experion PKS system and Honeywell C200 controller. The process control system is deployed in a virtualized environment on the basis of server (Windows Server 2012 R2) and normal (Windows 10) operating systems.The possible positive effect of implementation of modern IT infrastructure for technological objects is also analyzed. It lays in the fact of theoretically increase of fault tolerance level, practical simplification of system administration, and creation of bank for backup of virtual machines.This result is associated with a more rational and efficient use of capabilities of modern computer systems (CPU and RAM), data storage systems (using of RAID hard drives) and software.Исследованы возможные способы повышения уровня отказоустойчивости систем автоматизации и управления производственным процессом с использованием современных информационных технологий. Предложенная в работе методика объединяет применение аппаратных средств и программно-технологических решений в области виртуализации как базовой платформы для построения информационной инфраструктуры систем автоматизации технологических объектов. Виртуализация позволяет создавать копии программно-аппаратных сред систем автоматизации.Досліджено можливі способи збільшення рівня відмовостійкості систем автоматизації та управління виробничим процесом із застосуванням сучасних інформаційних технологій. Запропонована у роботі методика поєднує застосування апаратних засобів та програмно-технологічних рішень в області віртуалізації як базової платформи для побудови інформаційної інфраструктури систем автоматизації технологічних об’єктів. Віртуалізація дозволяє створювати копії програмно-апаратних середовищ систем автоматизації