Software Defined Networking for Communication and Control of Cyber-Physical Systems

TLDR

Cyber‑physical systems integrate physical processes with communication networks, yet legacy routing and switching technologies constrain innovation across computation, communication, and control domains. The paper proposes an SDN architecture for industrial automation that integrates Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory concepts to connect automation installations with modern networking and Internet technologies. The architecture uses SDN with OpenFlow to decouple control logic from physical routers, extracting design requirements from formal component specifications to automatically generate network configurations. By decoupling control logic, SDN enables researchers to program core networks at a high level, fostering innovation in next‑generation communication architectures for CPS.

Abstract

Cyber-physical Systems (CPS) combine human-machine interaction, the physical world around us, and software aspects by integrating physical systems with communication networks. Opportunities and research challenges are largely interconnected with the three core sub-domains of CPS — computation, communication and control. The current state of the art of the legacy communication technology is one of the major hindrances limiting the evolution of CPS. Most specifically, innovation in communication is restricted with existing routing and switching technologies leaving no practical methods for researchers to test their new ideas. Software Defined Networking (SDN), through the realization of OpenFlow, separates network control logic from the underlying physical routers and switches. This phenomenon allows researchers to write high-level control programs specifying the behavior of the core networks used to implement CPS and thus, enable innovation in next generation communication architectures for CPS. In this paper, we propose a SDN architecture for industrial automation. Network design requirements are extracted from formal component specifications which support the generation of automatic network configurations. The proposed SDN architecture aims to leverage Industry 4.0 and Smart Factories, to bring together industrial automation installations with networking and Internet technologies.