Safety network protocols

Communications with the ICS environment thrived throughout the evolution of process control innovation as well as design and architecture. As we discussed in previous chapters, ICS environments were not primarily designed with security in mind; there remains a lot of proprietary information that is still not accessible to the public, including proprietary protocols.

International Standard IEC 61784-3 specifies the most favored functional safety networks, with special focus paid to the Communication Profile Families (CPFs) identified in the Fieldbus standardization ecosystem.

In this section, we will explore the most relevant protocols, with a focus on safety network protocols.

HART

The HART protocol is an international standard for communicating with intelligent field devices in process automation. It is a reliable, cost-effective technique for exchanging configuration and diagnostic information with sensors, transmitters, and other machine elements...