Application of Virtualization Technologies in Novel Industrial Automation: Catalyst or Show-Stopper?

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how virtualization technologies can support Industry 4.0 automation by analyzing their performance, security, and scalability in industrial settings, highlighting potential benefits and challenges.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive benchmark-based analysis of hardware and OS virtualization in industrial automation, addressing their suitability and limitations.

Findings

Virtualization introduces manageable computational and networking overheads.

Security and scalability vary significantly across virtualization technologies.

Configuration effort impacts deployment in industrial environments.

Abstract

Industry 4.0 describes an adaptive and changeable production, where its factory cells have to be reconfigured at very short intervals, e.g. after each workpiece. Furthermore, this scenario cannot be realized with traditional devices, such as programmable logic controllers. Here the use of well-proven technologies of the information technology are conquering the production hall (IT-OT convergence). Therefore, both virtualization and novel communication technologies are being introduced in the field of industrial automation. In addition, these technologies are seen as the key for facilitating various emerging use cases. However, it is not yet clear whether each of the dedicated hardware and software components, which have been developed for specific control tasks and have performed well over decades, can be upgraded without major adjustments. In this paper, we examine the opportunities and challenges of hardware and operating system-level virtualization based on the stringent requirements imposed by industrial applications. For that purpose, benchmarks for different virtualization technologies are set by determining their computational and networking overhead, configuration effort, accessibility, scalability, and security.