What Is Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)? How Does IIoT Work?

26/05/2022

What Is Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)?

IIoT is a sub-classification of the Internet of Things (IoT). The so-called Industrial IoT (IIoT) is more inclined to applications in the manufacturing industry. Driven by the convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT), the IIoT is a matrix of networks connecting equipment and devices, collecting data via sensor technology, processing it, and integrating data back into platforms as service. IIoT is set to open up a new era of industrial applications with a myriad of opportunities for economic growth.

What Are the Benefits of IIoT?

Two main benefits that IIoT bring are increasing efficiency and saving cost. For improving efficiency, companies can use a variety of field data sensors to monitor operations and equipment status. Then use industrial connectivity, like switches or routers to transmit real-time data to the backend for business decision-making and predictions on whether machines need maintenance before failing. They can also execute precise procedures or make decisions based on the massive data gathered from their IIoT networked equipment. Since industrial IoT systems comprise many intelligent sensors, sensing modules, data connectivity devices, and software, companies that adopt IIoT technologies will benefit from an overview of business inefficiencies so they can then make more accurate decisions.

Another benefit is cost saving. Real-time monitoring and preventive maintenance are primary applications in IIoT, so businesses can predict potential risks, like machine breakdowns, improper goods handling, or stock shortages, before incidents occur. IIoT saves companies money by dealing with urgent failures that might have had an influential impact on customer satisfaction, business orders, or profits.

The differences between IoT, IIoT, and Industry 4.0

IIoT v.s. IoT

Although IIoT is a subcategory of IoT and utilizes similar technologies, they are targeted at different application categories. IoT is more consumer-centric and covers a variety of vertical markets, including retailing, healthcare, agriculture, government, and public sectors. IoT devices cover wearables, cellphones, or other consumer-centric applications. Generally, if something goes wrong with IoT applications, it will have a less hazardous impact compared to that from IIoT applications.

On the other hand, IIoT is mainly used in industrial-centric applications and its usual applications include factories, industrial equipment manufacturing, transportation systems, and energy & environment. Breakdowns or downtime will have a great impact not only on businesses but also on whole supply chains. That is the reason many businesses utilize IIoT to predict uncertainties and risks.

IIoT vs Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 has a broader scope which includes IIoT, digital transformation, and business sustainability. IIoT is a driving force for industry 4.0 and industry 4.0 will not exist without IIoT. In other words, IIoT is smaller in scope that mainly refers to data sensing, data transmission, data computing, data analysis, and domain intelligent applications.

How Does IIoT work?

The process of IIoT ranges from gathering enormous field data from the industrial floor, transmitting it through connectivity nodes, analyzing it in servers and processing the data into actionable analytics on a cloud platform. All this effort helps drive companies to make better business decisions for their vertical markets. IIoT is an integrated system from edge devices, including PLCs, actuators, sensors, controllers, connectivity switches, gateways, and industrial computers (IPC) to the cloud. There are four layers in IIoT, including the edge sensing layer, industrial communication layer, edge computing layer, and focused sectors. Advantech offers complete solutions to cover the full IIoT architecture.

Edge Sensing Layer

The first layer are sensors and devices with data acquisition units for collecting real-time data from the field. General sensing modules could be classified into wireless I/O & sensors, remote I/O, high-speed I/O, EtherCAT I/O systems, gateway & RTUs.

1. Wireless I/O & Sensors

Wireless I/O provides wireless communication for sensors. Advantech’s wireless IoT sensing devices, the WISE-4000 series, not only act as wireless communication for sensors but also provide cloud connectivity for additional user applications. With support for IoT protocols such as MQTT, the WISE-4000 series can communicate with cloud services or other web services via secure web sockets. For more domain-focused applications, Advantech’s WISE-2000 series offers a wireless and sensing all-in-one solution to simplify and accelerate the implementation of IoT applications. For example, Advantech’s WISE-2410 is a LoRaWAN wireless condition monitoring sensor that features an ARM Cortex-M4 processor, LoRa transceiver, 3-axis accelerometer, and temperature sensor.

Advantech's Wireless I/O Family Series

2. Remote I/O

Remote I/O is used for receiving analog/digital input data from actuators or sensors and performing analog/digital output with wired communication. Take the parking sensing control process as an example, once a car occupies a parking space, triggered vehicle detection sensors will send input signals to the remote module, and then the remote I/O module sends output signals to turn on the red light. Advantech’s remote I/O modules (ADAM series), categorized into three families including Ethernet I/O, Modular I/O systems, and RS-485 I/O, have been used by the industry for over 30 years. The ADAM-4000/4100 series features robust RS-485 Modbus I/O with USB for easy configuration and diagnosis. Analogously, the ADAM-6000/6200 series is an Ethernet I/O used for IoT applications with SNMP, MQTT, RESTful API, Web Service, and Azure/AWS interfaces. Likewise, the ADAM-6300 series is an innovative OPC UA I/O with security/encryption features. ADAM-5000 series is a modular I/O system that offers both RS-485/Ethernet I/O and KW/CoDeSys SoftLogic controller options.

Advantech's Remote I/O Family Series

3. High Speed I/O

Some industrial applications need high-speed I/O to receive high speed and high accurate data, so data acquisition (DAQ) cards are created for this high sampling rate application. As a leading supplier of data acquisition products worldwide, Advantech offers a wide range of I/O devices with various interfaces and solutions from signal conditioning modules, plug-in PCI/PCIE cards, portable USB modules, DAQ-embedded computers, and modular DAQ systems as well as DAQNavi/SDK software development package and DAQNavi/MCM machine condition monitoring software. Advantech’s industrial I/O products are designed for all kinds of industrial automation applications from machine automation control, and test measurement, to machine condition monitoring.

Advantech's Data Acquisition Solutions Overview

4. EtherCAT I/O System

EtherCAT offers a high-performance field network able to connect drive devices, intelligent sensors, and I/O devices using Ethernet technologies, and is now a popular Fieldbus in automation. For example, Advantech’s AMAX-5000 integrates traditional PLC and PC applications. It provides communication, high-speed data acquisition, control, data storage, and computing functions in a single platform.

Advantech's EtherCAT Application in Factory

5. Gateways & RTUs

With the massive amounts of data collected from widespread and remote areas, there is an increasing requirement for real-time data analysis and the need for data integration into multiple systems. Advantech’s ADAM-6700 is an all-in-one intelligent I/O gateway which integrates data acquisition and gateway features into one device that helps manufacturers painlessly transform to industry 4.0 manufacturing digitalization. ADAM-6700 enhances edge-to-cloud connection.

As to remote terminal units (RTUs), many industrial users consider that RTUs outperform programmable logic controllers (PLC), due to RTUs’ ruggedized design, programming easiness, storage function, and remote control capability. Advantech’s ADAM-3600 is an intelligent RTU with multiple wireless functions, multiple I/O selections, a wide temperature range, and support for flexible communication protocols useful for oil, gas, and water applications.

Industrial Communication Layer

Devices in communication layers are deployed for transmitting collected data from the edge sensing layer to the computing layer. In the industrial communication layer, you will see industrial Ethernet switches, protocol gateways, device servers, fiber optics, media converters, and wireless routers and gateways. For most applications, you will often hear about industrial switches. A switch is a networking device capable of transferring telecommunication signals. A Switch provides an exclusive path of telecom signals between any two network nodes linked by the switch. The most popular one is an Ethernet switch; there are also telephone voice switches, optical fiber switches, and so on.

For more details, we welcome you to read this article Industrial Switches Explained: What purpose and/or Functions do Industrial Switches Deliver?

Another term you will usually hear about is gateways because industrial communication systems are versatile, so protocol gateways and device servers are needed to enhance seamless communication between Fieldbus and industrial Ethernet devices as well as support for different protocols such as MQTT, BACnet, Ethernet/IP, EtherCat, PROFINET, and OPC UA. Advantech serial device servers and Modbus/Fieldbus gateways are serial-to-Ethernet solutions that allow users to connect their isolated serial devices to the Internet for centralized machine communication management. Advantech’s high compatibility device servers and Modbus/Fieldbus gateways can seamlessly convert protocols for boundless machine-to-machine/ machine-to-cloud data transmission and network connectivity. The obstacles of versatile protocol communication no longer exist!

Edge Computing Layer

With switches transmitting collected data from edge sensing sides, data needs to be processed and analyzed to become useful for actionable decisions. Based on different applications, you will often hear about industrial computers (IPCs) and industrial modular computers. Compared with consumer computers, IPCs are robust and ruggedized computers designed for industrial use in the field. The features of IPCs are fanless design, extensive I/O options, longer product lifetime, and high configuration options.

Modular IPCs aim at machine automation applications such as visual inspection, AOI, packaging inspection, process automation, and intelligent monitoring. Advantech’s Modular IPCs offer POE and the latest Intel Core processor and can be used in the application of edge intelligence and edge computing.

Focused Sectors

With abundant data and analytics from field sites, focused sectors are more related to generating custom applications for end-users. Example IIoT-focused sectors might include intelligent factory, industrial equipment manufacturing, energy & environment, and transportation.

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What Is Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)? How Does IIoT Work?

26/05/2022