Resource-optimal network resilience for real-time data exchanges in Cyber-Physical Systems

A cyber-physical system (CPS) typically utilizes networks of computers and communication systems to automatically monitor and manage the interactions and data exchanges between plant, sensor, controller and actuator elements within the CPS. The design and implementation of such a CPS are particularly challenging due to their requirements of high reliability and resiliency to possible components' failure or external malicious attacks. This paper examines the stability of a class of CPS which consists of a linear plant with matched uncertainties and is subject to a communication system problem known as denial-of-service (DoS). In essence, a DoS is a failure phenomenon on the CPS' communication links which prevents the execution of ideal control inputs to take place. This paper proposes an event-triggered control update scheme to design a resilient controller for such a CPS and characterizes sufficient conditions under which the system is rendered globally asymptotically stable in the presence of DoS attacks.

Automation in the industry can improve production efficiency and human safety when performing complex and hazardous tasks. This paper presented an intelligent cyber-physical system framework incorporating image processing and deep-learning techniques to facilitate real-time operations. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is one of the most widely used deep-learning techniques for image processing and object detection analysis. This paper used a variant of a CNN known as the faster R-CNN (R stands for the region proposals) for improved efficiency in object detection and real-time control analysis. The control action related to the detected object is exchanged with the actuation system within the cyber-physical system using a real-time data exchange (RTDE) protocol. We demonstrated the proposed intelligent CPS framework to perform object detection-based pick-and-place operations in real time as they are one of the most widely performed operations in quality control and industrial systems. The CPS consists of a camera system that is used for object detection, and the results are transmitted to a universal robot (UR5), which then picks the object and places it in the right location. Latency in communication is an important factor that can impact the quality of real-time operations. This paper discussed a Bayesian approach for uncertainty quantification of latency through the sampling–resampling approach, which can later be used to design a reliable communication framework for real-time operations.

The efficiency and benefit of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) depend heavily on interconnection of individual devices or nodes. Exchange of data, information relevant to an overall task or functionality is the key to many applications such as smart grids, smart cities, and many others. Trustworthiness of data is needed to make such systems successful. To be able to fulfill policies to guarantee the safety of all entities within a CPS and to provide security measures to enforce these cryptographic solutions have to be embedded. As we show in this paper it is possible to integrate security building blocks in ultra-small devices to provide essential properties for secure embedded systems. With proper policies, high cryptographic standards, rising acceptance by users, and provable security and safety measures, CPS will open countless possibilities to increase efficiency in many aspects of our everyday lives.

Cyber Physical Systems are in charge of the control of physical processes characterized by their own dynamics. This control must comply with timing constraints - sometimes stringent ones-imposed by the Cyber Physical Systems. It is crucial to address these timing issues as early as possible in the development process to detect inconsistencies in the requirements or in the constraints and to capture changes in the system. This paper aims to apply the clock theory to the specification of Cyber Physical Systems. To illustrate the concept we develop three well-known case studies: the Steam Boiler Control System, Press and Railway Cross System.

Abstract. During the last decade, operational monitoring and forecasting systems have been developed in all the European seas. The exchange of data and products and the development of services for a wide community of users pose some fundamental issues, whose solution has become a priority in integrated and GMES referring projects, such as the MERSEA European project. These projects aim to develop a European system for operational monitoring and forecasting on global and regional scales of ocean physics, bio-chemistry and ecosystems. GMES system and its operational projects need to federate resources and expertise coming from diverse organizations working on different Earth Sciences fields (e.g. satellite data processing, in situ observing systems, data management, ocean and ecosystem modeling, etc.). Therefore, it is required a Marine Information Management (MIM) system capable of facilitating the regular real-time exchange of high quality information, data and products. Moreover, MIM system must provide appropriate information for a wide range of external users both in real-time and delayed mode. In this paper an architecture based on the OPeNDAP/THREDDS technology is proposed as a solution for these operational systems. In this context, a catalog merging solution is introduced for the MIM system, which results in the design and development of the THREDDS Dataset Merger (TDM): a set of services meant to merge THREDDS Dataset Inventory Catalogs, so to achieve a unique catalog service for a whole database federation. TDM service merges distributed and autonomous THREDDS catalogs in order to work out a virtual merged catalog. The TDM service was extended in order to provide automatic catalogs synchronization. This service allows extending the pull-based TDM paradigm to support push-based applications. Some security issues are also considered.

Rail transit is a typical Cyber-physical Systems (CPS). The study of urban rail transit CPS was carried out with the introduction of CPS into the urban rail transit system. Based on the analysis of CPS, the fundamental architecture of urban rail transit CPS was designed and the functions of corresponding layers were explained. The system model of urban rail transit CPS was proposed. The functions of the model and the interaction between each model were explained. The issue of heterogeneous networks integration in rail transit system and train system was analyzed. Meanwhile, according to the actual demand of security monitoring and management of train running, network controller between WSN and control bus was designed and verified. The results show that the network controller can well achieve data exchange between WSN and train network.

The Internet of Things (IoT) era facilitates new possibilities at the interface between the lifecycle of the product and the manufacturing disciplines allowing to add value and meet growing legal requirements. This work presents use cases from the automobile industry which are analyzed in order to derive requirements for data exchange. The analysis of the use cases shows clearly that we need to focus on the instance level for this purpose. This means that both, a specific unit of the product and the production system, must be considered. As a solution approach, a communication loop is proposed bringing the Digital Twin concept in a new field of usage. The key aspect of the proposed solution is the direct intercommunication between the Digital Twins of the product being produced as a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) and the production resources as Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS). This solution enables the aggregation of production-related data within the products Digital Twin and therefore promotes maximal transparency throughout engineering disciplines, phases of the product lifecycle and the whole supply chain.

The paper presents an overview of communication protocols for Industry 4.0, the general trend currently pursued within automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. The concept includes Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Services (IoS), and cloud computing. Industry 4.0 also comprises the notion of the modular-structured smart factory, where cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world, and make decentralized decisions. Over the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real time; through the Internet of Services, both internal and cross-organizational services are offered and used by participants in the value chain. This article describes industry-standard protocols such as the OPC Unified Architecture (UA), PPM-Protocol, and DDS (Data Distribution Service).

Industry 4.0 is a name given to the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the internet of things, cloud computing, and cognitive computing. Industry 4.0 is commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. Industry 4.0 fosters what has been called a “smart factory.” Within modular structured smart factories, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions. Over the internet of things, cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real time both internally and across organizational services offered and used by participants of the value chain. There are four design principles in Industry 4.0. These principles support companies in identifying and implementing Industry 4.0 scenarios (Helmold and Samara 2019):

The automation pyramid is shifting and will most likely not have a stock in rigid form. The shift is towards Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS). Some components in CPPS have to meet real-time requirements. One trend coming along with the change in automation architectures is the virtualization of applications. This enables platform independent development and deployment of secure and isolated applications. Yet, virtualization of applications comes with additional software components and therefore, additional processing effort. For web-services, virtualization is widespread, for embedded systems virtualization development and deployment is not common due time constraints of applications. The use of virtualized applications in embedded systems would have significant benefits like less effort in cross-platform development and cross compiling to state two examples. The method of virtualization in CPPS have to be evaluated concerning time-sensitive applications. In this approach, the time delays occurring through the additional virtualization layer with Docker containers are explored.

Irrigation networks play a fundamental part in the agriculture system of various countries. In the wake of global environmental challenges and economic competition, efficient use of water resources has become extremely important. This can only be achieved by developing smarter control infrastructures for irrigation networks, via the incorporation of communication and computation technologies. Thus, future irrigation networks represent a prime example of cyber physical systems. Effective operation of these complex cyber physical systems is not possible with conventional methods and requires unprecedented levels of automation and decision-support tools. We argue that these cyber physical systems will require a complete model-driven toolset for effective operation. As a first step towards that tool flow, we have developed a model-driven simulation infrastructure for irrigation networks. In the future, we propose to complete the toolset by developing a model-driven configuration infrastructure. Our contributions in this paper include the development of a domain-specific modeling language (DSML) for irrigation networks, implementation of this DSML in Generic Modeling Environment (GME), and automatic simulator M-file generation capability from the DSML-based case diagram of an arbitrary irrigation network. Moreover, we present case studies of water distribution and flood management to show the utility as well as the effectiveness of our approach. We also present the performance of our toolset for the realistic scenario of irrigation networks in Pakistan.

This paper applies web services using the common information model (CIM) to exchange measurement data from the transformer terminal unit (TTU) to the distribution management system (ADMS) for the aging estimation of distribution transformers. An application programming interface (API) is designed by using web services such as simple object access protocol (SOAP) and representational state transfer (RESTful) for TTU measurement data exchange. The structured query language (SQL) and the not only SQL (NoSQL) databases are used to store historical TTU data for neural network (NN) model training. An optimization architecture of web service with the database is proposed to increase data exchange performance. The exchanged real-time TTU data is input into a trained NN model that can provide a reference aging factor for the utility crew to balance distribution transformer loading. Finally, the graphic user interface (GUI) is designed in this paper to display real-time information and achieve asset management of distribution transformers.

Subject of research: Subject of research: The object of research is the security infrastructure of intelligence-enabled environments such as IoT systems and cyber-physical systems that involve high levels of heterogeneity, mobility, as well as constantly changing boundaries of operations. Investigated problem: The identified problem description relates to the inefficacy of classical perimeter security concepts in a scaled-up intelligence environment where the boundaries of a network are no more precise, making trust a concept difficult to define by location. The main scientific results: The study proposes an analysis framework with which the principles of Zero Trust can be applied to smart systems following the guidelines of NIST SP 800-207. The research highlights the vulnerabilities associated with multi-level intelligent environments and has outlined the essential elements of effective Zero Trust Architecture to be adapted to resource-constrained scenarios. It has concluded that to adequately safeguard IoT and cyber-physical systems, the need arises to integrate the aspects of continuous verification, context-responsive access control, and adaptive trust assessments. The research has shown that the integration of the aspects of artificial intelligence and machine learning with predictive threat analysis, along with the usage of blockchain identity management, highly enhances the resilience level of the system. The area of practical use of the research results: The research results can be applied in the implementation of secure IoT ecosystems, cyber-physical systems, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise networks that require a high level of adaptability to changing threats. Innovative technological product: The innovative technological product that has been described in the research paper is a Zero Trust Architecture framework that has been designed for smart environments which are diverse and resource-scarce. Scope of the innovative technological product: The proposed framework is universal in application, as it spans smart cities, industrial IoT, healthcare IoT, smart areas, smart buildings, smart transportation systems, smart grids, smart energy, smart homes, smart education, smart industries, smart governance, smart IoT, smart security, smart surveillance, smart sensors, smart

The optimal tools selection for design of web-based visual mining client for real time fraud detection systems was discussed. The features of modern real time fraud detection software were analyzed. The necessity of transition to using of web-based technologies for client software design was shown. The market of web-frameworks and browser to web-server data exchange technologies were investigated. Basing on experimental research the most efficient toolset for design of web-client software for real time fraud detection systems was offered. Keywords: fraud detection, Visual Mining, real time data exchange, web-visualization, webSockets, MessageBus.

Research Purpose: Cyber-Physical Systems solve complex problems through their tight integration between the physical and computational components. Therefore, the reliability of a complex system is the most critical requirement for the cyber-physical system because an unreliable system often leads to service disruption, property damage, financial loses and sometimes lead to fatality. In order to develop more reliable CPS, this paper proposes a generic framework for reliability modeling and analysis for our ongoing work on cyber-physical systems. Research Method: This paper, at first defines an architecture for general CPS which is comprised of three layers; environment layer, communication layer, and computational layer. Secondly, we formalize a reliability model for the architectural components, and then propose a framework for the reliability of CPS with the consideration of how to capture the reliability. Results: Based on the research method, we demonstrate the proposed framework with an illustrative example by using different reliability values from "offshore and onshore reliability data" library. We confirmed that the reliability model covers almost all possible reliabilities required to general cyber-physical systems.