Architecture for Cloud-Based

Industrial Automation

Magdi S. Mahmoud

Abstract Cloud computing has recently emerged as a new computing paradigm in

many application areas comprising office and enterprise systems. It offers various
solutions to provide a dynamic and flexible infrastructure to host computing resources
and deliver them as a service on demand. Since industrial automation systems of
the future have to be active and adaptable, cloud computing can be considered as
a promising solution for this area. In this paper, the aim is to introduce an initial
framework for applying cloud computing solutions to industrial automation systems.
Our work is based on translating our experience in networked control systems (NCS),
industrial control theory and computing theory to propose an architecture for cloud-
based industrial automation systems. Albeit this architecture proposal is initial and
limited to abstract models for wide class of practical systems, this work aims to
analyze related issues and assess possible avenues towards continuing cloud-based
control system design.

Keywords Networked control systems · Industrial control theory · Computing

theory · Cloud-based control system

1 Introduction

Industrial automation systems are facing fast-growing market demands where agility
and adaptability in production plants are needed. Over the coming years, the fourth
industrial revolution will grow based on intelligent production, where the main focus
will be are smart objects, autonomous products and decision-making processes using
new technologies from information technology (IT) domain.
With the rapid development of processing and storage technologies and the success
of the Internet, computing resources have become cheaper, more powerful and more
ubiquitously available than ever before. This technological trend has enabled the

M. S. Mahmoud (B)
Systems Engineering Department, KFUPM, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
e-mail: msmahmoud@kfupm.edu.sa; magdisadekmahmoud@gmail.com

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 51

X.-S. Yang et al. (eds.), Third International Congress on Information
and Communication Technology, Advances in Intelligent Systems
and Computing 797, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1165-9_6
52 M. S. Mahmoud

realization of a new computing model called cloud computing, in which resources

(CPU and storage) are provided as general utilities that can be leased and released
by users through the Internet in an on-demand fashion [1].
The main goal of this paper is to introduce an initial framework for applying
cloud computing solutions to industrial automation systems. Our work is based on
translating our experience in networked control systems (NCS), industrial control
theory and computing theory to propose an architecture for cloud-based industrial
automation systems. Albeit this architecture proposal is initial and limited to abstract
models for wide class of practical systems, this work aims to analyze related issues
and assess possible avenues towards continuing cloud-based control system design.

2 Cloud Computing

Historically, computing models have been directly affected by the available tech-
nologies. Personal computing (PC) in 1980s was the first local computing solution
to the problem of availability since it was based on the concept of decentralized
computing. It gained wide popularity because of low-cost resources and simplicity.
Afterwards, computer networks and especially Internet has got more popularity and
bandwidth as well as stronger hosts started to grow. On the other hand, by emerging
Everything as a Service (XaaS) [2] concept in the computing as an approach to pack
and deliver computing resources as services via a central service provider, the IT
world motivated for a new computing era [3, 4].
In a cloud computing environment, the traditional role of service provider is
divided into two: the infrastructure providers who manage cloud platforms and lease
resources according to a usage-based pricing model, and service providers, who rent
resources from one or many infrastructure providers to serve the end users. The
emergence of cloud computing has made a tremendous impact on IT industry over
the past few years, where large companies such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft
strive to provide more powerful, reliable and cost-efficient cloud platforms, and
business enterprises seek to reshape their business models to gain benefit from this
new paradigm.
Cloud computing architecture can be divided into several layers: the hardware
layer, the infrastructure layer, the platform layer and the application layer as shown
in Fig. 1:

– Hardware layer handles the physical resources of the cloud, including physical
hardware, network devices and power systems. Typical issues at hardware layer
include hardware configuration, fault-tolerance, traffic management and power
management.
– Infrastructure layer is also known as virtualization layer. This layer partitions the
hardware and provides a pool of computing resources and disk storage.
Architecture for Cloud-Based Industrial Automation 53

Fig. 1 Cloud computing structure

– Platform layer mainly covers operating systems and application frameworks

depending on each specific platform. This layer tries to minimize the develop-
ment efforts by providing development platform to the developers as a service
without installing any software or framework on their computers.
– Application layer offers the cloud applications to the end users as a service. These
applications can be automatically scaled with high performance inside this layer
with lower maintenance costs comparing with traditional applications [5].

Cloud computing is based on a service-driven model. In this model, hardware

and software resources will be delivered as services on demand. Cloud computing
utilizes three delivery models by which different types of services are delivered to
the end user. The three delivery models are the SaaS, PaaS and IaaS which provide
infrastructure resources, application platform and software as services to the con-
sumer. These service models also place a different level of security requirements in
the cloud environment. IaaS is the foundation of all cloud services, with PaaS built
upon it and SaaS in turn built upon it; see Fig. 1. In this regard, cloud computing
describes a new supplement, consumption and delivery model for IT services based
on Internet protocols, and it typically involves provisioning of dynamically scalable
and often virtualized resources. It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease of
access to remote computing sites provided by the Internet.
54 M. S. Mahmoud

3 Automation Systems

Future automation systems should meet fast-growing market demands by provid-

ing agile and flexible production lines. In addition, competitive production costs and
scalability of the automation system would be an important topic for the industry 4.0.
Technical processes often consist of distributed subsystems controlled by individual
PLCs [6]. Each new hardware PLC brings additional costs and maintenance efforts.
The virtualization of industrial controller functionality (PLC as a service) [7] could
be a promising approach. Though, some inherent challenges such as accessibility and
security need to be addressed for industrial automation applications [8]. In the pres-
ence of a comprehensive resource distribution policy, multiple instances of virtual
PLCs can be created and allocated to control underlying physical subsystems [9].
During recent years, industrial automation witnessed new demands and trends in
different areas. Field devices become more intelligent by embedding new functional-
ities inside IO devices or sensors and actuators. Similarly, industrial communication
has been developed significantly by improving communication standards and pro-
tocols in the control and field level which makes devices more connected. These
trends might require the definition of new automation architectures differing from
the current hierarchical automation pyramid.

4 Networked Control Systems

Many infrastructures and service systems of the present-day society can naturally
be described as networks of a huge number of simple interacting units. Examples
coming from the technological fields include transportation networks, power grids,
water distribution networks, telephone networks and the Internet. There are many
new problems arising from networking subsystems while designing complex net-
worked systems. Due to the low cost and the flexibility of communication networks
(like Ethernet, Wi-Fi, the Internet, CAN), these are widely used in industrial control
systems (including remote control, wireless sensors, collaborative systems, embed-
ded systems); see Fig. 2 for a schematic networked control systems (NCS). Recently,
the Web technology on the Internet appears as a natural, inexpensive way to ensure
the communication link in remotely controlled systems.

5 Concept of Cloud Control System

Bearing in mind that cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather
than a product, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to
computers and other devices as a utility over a network, especially over Internet
[10, 11]. In [12], it is proposed to combine the merits of cloud computing and
Architecture for Cloud-Based Industrial Automation 55

Fig. 2 Networked control system schematic

Fig. 3 Cloud control system [12]

advanced theory of NCSs to exhibit unbelievable potential applications in industrial

department and other related areas. This coined the term cloud control systems (CCS),
a representative structure of which is depicted in Fig. 3.
In cloud control systems, the huge mass data of measurements from all kinds of
sensors will be sent out to the central of cloud of computing, after the data being
processed, control signal, such as schedule schemes, predictive control sequences
and other useful information will be provided instantly for cloud control systems.
Cloud control systems will provide us powerful tools to control the complex systems
which cannot be visualized before. [13–16].
56 M. S. Mahmoud

6 Hierarchy of Industrial Control

Basically, existing works related to cloud computing in automation could be catego-

rized based on their focus on each individual automation level. Most of these works
aim at migrating functions and services from the common hierarchical automation
architecture to a flat architecture. Here is a summary of pertinent effort at different
levels:

– Control and Field Layer L1

This layer basically consists of physical devices, sensing and actuating and func-
tions that deal field data measurements and processing. This layer constitutes the
very bottom of the hierarchy.
– Process Control Layer L2
For the process control layer, controllers are special-purpose microprocessor-based
computer systems running control algorithms on top of special-purpose operat-
ing systems. A single controller can usually interact with several control loops,
depending on the processing speed as well as the sampling rates and complexity
of the control algorithms. For medium- and large-scale systems, communication
between field devices and controllers takes place over a special network called
field-level network.
A supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) can be used to historize the
process variables constantly to review their trends later and assess how the sys-
tem health changes with time. Communication between controllers and SCADA
machines take place over a special network called control network.
– Plant Management Layer L3
To optimize the overall operation of the industrial plant, higher-level optimization
software is needed to coordinate the operating conditions of control loops so that
the optimization objectives (minimizing input feed consumption, or maintaining
a certain production rate/quality) are met.
– Enterprise Management Layer L4
To link the plant to the outside world, it is required to tie the energy production
to market demands as well as different assets, such as material and labor prices.
Enterprise-level management analysis is recalled to prepare for plant optimization
objectives.

Admittedly, cloud computing is one of the potential solutions for integration

between different automation levels, and hence, the necessity for research to provide
integration between available applications must be considered. It is possible to replace
IT and automation clouds with a single cloud illustrated in Fig. 4 as a cyber-physical
system (CPS).
Architecture for Cloud-Based Industrial Automation 57

Fig. 4 Decomposition of the automation hierarchy

7 Cloud-Based Approach

The proposed solution approach aims at offering control as a service for an indus-
trial automation. In the proposed cloud-based approach, all computing functions of
the industrial automation system are moved into the cloud in order to provide full
automation as a service. In turn, this makes it easier, faster and less costly for users to
deploy, maintain and upgrade their automation systems. Moreover, our design sup-
ports switching to a different cloud automation providers since all virtual machines
(VMs) can be group migrated to a different provider.
Some components are not movable to the cloud, such as sensors, actuators and
safety/emergency shutdown control functions. Fig. 5 illustrates our proposed automa-
tion architecture, which relaxes the existing systems layers. Moreover, it reflects the
relationship between each component and the layers shown in Fig. 4.
The following points stand out:
– For the purpose of connecting sensors and actuators to the cloud, it is suggested
to use field-level protocols that run on top of TCP, such as Modbus/TCP and
Profibus/TCP, which are either built in the devices or provided through separate
I/O modules.
– Direct digital control algorithms (L1 ) run on cloud VMs instead of the traditional
real hardware in the control room.
– In Fig. 4, controllers communicate with sensors/actuators over a network with
negligible deterministic communication delays. In Fig. 5, communication occurs
over the Internet, which adds large and variable delays to the control loop. There-
58 M. S. Mahmoud

Fig. 5 Overview of the cloud-based control approach

fore, straightforward migration of direct digital control algorithms to the cloud

may affect the functionality of the control loop and hence hinders the theoretical
performance guarantees offered by traditional controllers. This recalls for more
components to mitigate the variable Internet delays and the lack of reliability of
Internet links and VMs, which are designed in this paper.
– It is proposed to deploy SCADA at layers L2 –L4 through platform- or software-
as-a-service (PaaS and SaaS) models.

8 Cloud-Based Control Model

Experience has indicated that the round-trip delay between the Internet controllers
and controlled processes varies with time [17]. In most cases, the Internet round-trip
delay ranges from tens to a few hundreds of milliseconds. Meanwhile, the sampling
Architecture for Cloud-Based Industrial Automation 59

periods used in most industrial applications typically range from a few hundreds
of milliseconds to several seconds. Therefore, most of the round-trip delay will be
absorbed within the sampling periods and will have no effect on the control loop
[17], because the controlled process will still be receiving one action per sampling
period. However, delay may occasionally change in a random fashion beyond the
sampling period because of the dynamic nature of the Internet.
For the purpose of illustration, consider a plant represented by a linear shift-
invariant system

x(k + 1) = Ax(k) + Bu(k − ds − da ) + Γ ω(k)

z(k) = C x(k) + Λω(k) (1)

where x(k) ∈ Rn is the state vector, u(k) ∈ Rm is the local control vector, z(k) ∈ Rq
is the output observation vector, and ω(k) ∈ Rq is the exogenous vector which is
assumed to belong to 2 [0, ∞), r(k) is the input and for the dissipativity analysis one
can let r(k) = 0. The matrices A ∈ n×n , B ∈ Rn×m , C ∈ Rq×n , Γ ∈ Rn×q , Λ ∈
Rq×q constants.
It can be seen that there are two delays: ds is used to represent the forward
communication delay from sensor to cloud, and da is used to represent backward
communication delay from cloud to the actuator. A natural assumption on the time
delay components ds and da can be given by

0 < αm ≤ ds ≤ α M , 0 < τm ≤ da ≤ τ M (2)

where αm , α M , τm , τ M are constants designating delay bounds with αm , τm

reflecting a finite delay irrespective of the technology level of the communication
links whereas α M , τ M reflecting the maximum allowable bound beyond which the
networked system will become unstable.
The following theorem provides a sufficient asymptotic stability condition for
system (1):

Theorem 1 System (1) with u(k) ≡ 0, ω(k) ≡ 0 is asymptotically stable if there

exist matrices P 1 > 0, R j > 0, S j > 0, j = 1, 2, Q > 0, L > 0, P2 , P3 , P4 ,
P5 , P6 and P7 satisfying
⎡ ⎤
Ω11 • • • •
⎢ Ω21 Ω22 • • • ⎥
⎢ ⎥
Ω=⎢
⎢ Ω31 Ω32 Ω33 • • ⎥⎥<0 (3)
⎣ Ω41 Ω42 Ω43 Ω44 • ⎦
Ω51 0 Ω53 0 Ω55
60 M. S. Mahmoud

where

Ω11 = P2T (A − I ) + (A − I )T P2 + P4 + P4t

− α−1
M R1 + S1 + Q
Ω21 = P3T (A − I ) + P3T + P1 − P2
Ω22 = −P3 − P3T + P1 + α M R1 + τ M R2
+ (α M + τ M − αm − τm )L
Ω31 = P6T + B T P2 − P4
Ω32 = B T P3 − P5
−1
Ω33 = −P6 − P6T − τ M R2 − S2
− Q − (α M + τ M − αm − τm )−1 L
Ω41 = P7T − P4 , Ω42 = −P5
Ω43 = −P7T − P6T , Ω44 = −P7T − P7
Ω51 = α−1
M R1
−1
Ω53 = τ M R1 + (α M + τ M − αm − τm )−1 L
Ω55 = −α−1 −1
M R1 − τ M R2 − S1 + S2
− (α M + τ M − αm − τm )−1 L (4)

The proof of Theorem 1 hinges on invoking Lyapunov–Krasovskii stability theory

[18]. The following Lyapunov–Krasovskii function candidate is constructed

V (k) = V1 (k) + V2 (k) + V3 (k) + V4 (k)

V1 (k) = x t (k)P1 x(k)
−1 
k−1
V2 (k) = η T ()R1 η()
θ=−ds =k+θ
−d
s −1 
k−1
+ η T ()R2 η()
θ=−ds −da =k+θ


k−1
V3 (k) = x T ()S1 x()
=k−ds


k−ds −1

+ x T ()S2 x()
=k−ds −da


k−1
V4 (k) = x T ()Qx()
=k−ds −da
−α
M −τ M 1

+ η T ()Lη() (5)
=−ds −da
Architecture for Cloud-Based Industrial Automation 61

where η(k) = x(k + 1) − x(k), V (k) > 0. Proceed to compute ΔV (k) = V (k +

1) − V (k). A straightforward computation can show that ΔV (k) ≤ ξ T Ωξ for a given
ξ(k) = 0. It is clear that if (3) holds, then ΔV (k) < 0, which completes the proof.
Remark 1 Theorem 1 can be readily extended to establish stabilization of system (1)
under linear controllers including state feedback u(k) = K s x(k), or output feed-
back u(k) = K o z(k). Moreover, robust controllers could be designed with prescribed
performance criteria including H2 , H∞ , or mixed H2 /H∞ .

9 Conclusion

In this paper, a framework for applying cloud computing solutions to industrial

automation systems is introduced. The work stemmed from our experience in net-
worked control systems (NCS), industrial control theory and computing theory to
articulate an architecture for cloud-based industrial automation systems. Albeit this
architecture proposal is initial and limited to abstract models for wide class of prac-
tical systems, this work aimed to analyze related issues and assess possible avenues
towards continuing cloud-based control system design.

Acknowledgements This work is supported by the deanship of scientific research (DSR) at

KFUPM through research project No. IN-141048.

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