Interoperability

Industrial technologies have evolved along each industry vertical over the years. For example, the energy sector is guided by a specific set of standards and regulations, which may be divergent from manufacturing. These verticals were never designed to interoperate. The industrial internet is driving a massive convergence of these industry verticals, to materialize new IIoT use cases, such as the smart city. IIoT interoperability anchors on security and scalability. We are still at too early a stage to define the necessary mechanics of interoperability, such as protocol gateways and reference architectures.

In Chapter 5, Securing Connectivity and Communications, we discussed the IIC Industrial Internet Connectivity Framework (IIC-IICF), published by the IIC. This framework document provides an important foundation and guidance for building interoperable systems and architectures.

In the power industry, the OpenFMB project is making significant progress in defining nonproprietary...