An Overview on Industrial Control Networks

Abstract

Industrial control systems broadly refer to the connection of various electronic equipment used in factories, process control plants, and automated facilities for monitoring and controlling manufacturing and other applications. The electronic equipment mainly includes machines like robots, computers, machine tools, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), sensors, actuators (e.g., relays, valves, motors) and measuring instruments. However, one dominant component throughout all industrial control systems is communication networks which are responsible for connecting all equipment and devices by electrical interfaces and communication protocols to function the systems. Over the decades, the usage of communication equipment has increased significantly in the industrial control systems thanks to the development of advanced information and communication technologies in order to improve the communication network performances as well as optimize monitoring and control operations. This chapter briefly overviews the development of industrial control networks emphasizing the importance of wired communication technologies like fieldbus , Ethernet and examines the trends and issues in the industrial control application area.