Industry 4.0: The Industrial Internet of Things

© Alasdair Gilchrist 2016

Alasdair Gilchrist, Industry 4.0, 10.1007/978-1-4842-2047-4_4

4. IIoT Reference Architecture

Alasdair Gilchrist¹ 

(1)Bangken, Nonthaburi, Thailand

The Industrial Internet is reliant on the structure of M2M technology. Sometimes, it is older established technologies and practices that have been around for decades, that can spark innovation, and as a result, IIoT’s architecture is often seen as a natural evolution of M2M. This is particularly true within manufacturing, which is the biggest user of IIoT technology, primarily due to its long history with machine automation, robotics, and M2M communication and cooperation.

Figure 4-1 shows a traditional M2M architecture and the IIoT architectural architecture. If you compare these, ...