Timeseries on IIoT Platforms: Requirements and Survey for Digital Twins in Process Industry

TL;DR

This paper identifies specific requirements for timeseries data in IIoT-enabled process industries, surveys existing technologies against these needs, and highlights gaps that require tailored extensions for effective digital twin implementation.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive set of requirements for timeseries data in process industry digital twins and evaluates current IIoT technologies, revealing significant gaps and the need for extensions.

Findings

Existing IIoT standards do not fully meet process industry requirements.

Most commercial platforms lack essential features for digital twin support.

Tailor-made extensions are necessary for effective implementation.

Abstract

In the pursue for sustainability in process industry, digital twins necessitate the communication and storage of timeseries data about Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Regarding timeseries, this paper first presents a set of requirements specific to process industries. Then, it surveys how existing IIoT technologies meet the requirements. The technologies include the API specifications Asset Administration Shell (AAS), Digital Twin Definition Language (DTDL), NGSI-LD and Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) as well as six commercial platforms. All the technologies leave significant gaps regarding the requirements, which means that tailor-made extensions are necessary.