Hands-On Industrial Internet of Things

Automation networks

Looking at the CIM model, we can understand how important information being exchanged between devices on the same or different levels is. In the lower levels, we have a large amount of simple information that is exchanged within small and determined time intervals. At higher levels, we need to transfer less information that is more complex and within longer time intervals that are not necessarily determined. In an integrated production system, different types of IT networks are needed, each tailored to the task to which it is dedicated. We can identify three categories of networks—information network, control network, and field network, as follows:

• Information network: This ensures the communication between the control ...