Intent-Based Automation Networks Toward a Common Reference Model for the Self-Orchestration of Industrial Intranets

Managing the complexity of industrial communication infrastructures from field to enterprise level, satisfying the needs of horizontal and vertical applications, has been an increasing challenge over the last decades. The Industrial Internet of Things as a next step will interconnect the Industrial Intranets within companies, wrapping the multitude of existing fieldbus technologies and Industrial Ethernet behind a shared, IP-converged network infrastructure At this point, we find existing technologies, tools, and management concepts in the automation domain to be insufficient to yield the flexibility and sustainability needed to deploy and maintain mission-critical network infrastructure over decades. In this paper, we focus on how to orchestrate the data transport functionality of an Industrial Intranet including both IP and heritage protocols, wired and wireless technologies. To this end, we propose a reference model for communication management to usearding, or the semantics of communicated data are out of scope. in automation systems. Particular network design practices, protocol performance, operational data forw The objective of the reference model is to serve as a basis for further research and standardization in Industrial IoT networks.