A Survey on Industrial Internet of Things: A Cyber-Physical Systems Perspective

Abstract

The vision of Industry 4.0, otherwise known as the fourth industrial revolution, is the integration of massively deployed smart computing and network technologies in industrial production and manufacturing settings for the purposes of automation, reliability, and control, implicating the development of an Industrial Internet of Things (I-IoT). Specifically, I-IoT is devoted to adopting the Internet of Things (IoT) to enable the interconnection of anything, anywhere, and at anytime in the manufacturing system context to improve the productivity, efficiency, safety and intelligence. As an emerging technology, I-IoT has distinct properties and requirements that distinguish it from consumer IoT, including the unique types of smart devices incorporated, network technologies and quality of service requirements, and strict needs of command and control. To more clearly understand the complexities of I-IoT and its distinct needs, and to present a unified assessment of the technology from a systems perspective, in this paper we comprehensively survey the body of existing research on I-IoT. Particularly, we first present the I-IoT architecture, I-IoT applications (i.e., factory automation (FA) and process automation (PA)) and their characteristics. We then consider existing research efforts from the three key systems aspects of control, networking and computing. Regarding control, we first categorize industrial control systems and then present recent and relevant research efforts. Next, considering networking, we propose a three-dimensional framework to explore the existing research space, and investigate the adoption of some representative networking technologies, including 5G, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and software defined networking (SDN). Similarly, concerning computing, we again propose a second three-dimensional framework that explores the problem space of computing in I-IoT, and investigate the cloud, edge, and hybrid cloud and edge computing platforms. Finally, we outline particular challenges and future research needs in control, networking, and computing systems, as well as for the adoption of machine learning, in an I-IoT context.

Keywords: Application and Service; Big Data Analytics; Computing; Control; Future Research Directions; Industrial Cyber Physical Systems; Industrial Internet of Things; Machine Learning; Networking; Survey.

Fig. 1:

I-IoT System Architecture

Fig. 2:

I-IoT from a CPS Perspective: the gear on the left encapsulates the lifecycle of physical systems, while the cloud figure on the right describes the cyber systems (i.e., the interplay between control, networking and computing systems)

Fig. 3:

Structure of Centralized Control

Fig. 4:

Structure of Decentralized Control

Fig. 5:

Structure of Hierarchical Control

Fig. 6:

Simplified SCADA Architecture

Fig. 7:

Taxonomy of Networking in I-IoT

Fig. 8:

Structure of Cloud Computing for I-IoT

Fig. 9:

Structure of Hybrid Cloud and Edge Computing for I-IoT

Fig. 10:

Taxonomy of Computing Systems in I-IoT

Fig. 11:

Objectives of Control Systems in I-IoT System: (a) Control Objectives, (b) Performance Objectives

Fig. 12:

Network Deployment Scenarios: (a) multiple sensors are deployed to sense information and guide the actions of one actuator, (b) multiple sensors and actuators are deployed in the manufacturing area to perform complex sensing and actuating and tasks, (c) only multiple sensors are deployed to collect information about the complex manufacturing area

Fig. 13:

Hierarchical Computing Architecture