SCADA in Automation of Electrical Distribution of Networks

Posted by Winnie Melda on January 17th, 2019

Supervisory Control and Acquisition of Data (SCADA) in Transportation and Logistics

Description of Industry

            The transportation and logistics are concepts that get to define the motion of the human kind and the related objects. Transportations define the movement of people goods and animals from one point of location to another point of location by the application of the different means modes of transport. The modes of transport include the primary road, air, rail, water, pipeline, space, and cable. The models get to aid the movement of products, services, and goods without the forgetting of humankind from one point to different locations within the global. As the objects get to move from the original point to the other different points, they should get managed for the benefit of the involved parties. Logistics defines the management of the way things gets to flow from the point of origin to the point of application or consumption with the purpose of meeting the end user requirements. As the people take to move from one point to the other, transport objects from place to place the models that offer the transport should get controlled for the better service delivery with the provision of the appropriate security to the users of the models.

            The transportation and the logistics have had a great positive impact on the society. The ability of people moving from one point to another is the primary benefit that the transportation industry takes to offer the society. The people get to work from the different homestead and can maintain a functioning economy. However, the vital activity appreciated from the transportation is the movement of goods. Raw material should get delivered to the industries; the processed goods should get to reach the consumers all the activities get done with the application of the transport industry. We can take to imagine the movement of people that has led to the interactions which is a boost to the social network and the general social life. In the case, we take to focus on the benefits felt by the use of the roads, rail, air, and water as the modes of transport. Te faster conveys of goods by the use of electrical transmissions have had the great impact on the overall growth of the economy within the world. It gets further revealed that countries with highly developed transport system take to have the enjoying of the growth in their economy by 3% higher than the nations with a poorly developed transport network. Therefore, the transportation takes the focus to the roads, rail, water, air and the pipeline. The logistics get to define the management techniques to making sure of the flow of the goods from the origin to the point of consumption. As the goods get delivery in the correct manner and faster will stimulate the increase in the productivity and the efficiency of undertaking operations that gets to depend on the delivery of the goods and the products. The management takes to have the focus on the management of the core business activities and the elimination of the capital investment. Furthermore, the logistics take to have the end user enjoying the certainty and the reliability in the operations of the products movement. Also, logistics takes to fasten activities and operations with the increase in the accuracy of undertaking activities as well (Kasilingam, 1998).

Industrial Control System Processes Employed

Intelligent transportation system

            The Intelligent transportation system applies the technology that takes to support the operation within the highways by guiding the road users and provided the controls to the way the road should get used. The Intelligent transportation system technology applies the communication systems of that use the Bluetooth, WI-Fi and the wireless radio for the communication from the central control system base to the control device installed alongside the road. The operations take controlled from the regional traffic management centers (TMC). The application of the traffic cameras such as the CCTV helps to detect the congestions and the incidences from which a response takes place immediately to have the control of the situation. It takes place whereby the response team responds immediately to the problems that require the physical response. The ramp meters takes to have the application of the traffic signals mounted on the freeway on ramps with alternating colors to have the controlling of the vehicles and cycles entering the roads freeway mainline. The Intelligent transportation system further gets to apply the traffic data collectors that gets mounted with the traffic detectors that keeps track on what is happing within the highways.

Video surveillance systems

            Video surveillance systems take to operate by monitoring and recording the activities and the operations around the designated area. The surveillance cameras take to record the activities and send the information to the central control system where incidences and problems within the highway get detected, and the appropriate response to the incidence gets initiated accordingly. Furthermore, the pictures and the videos recorded can get applied for the implementation of the traffic governing rules in case the offender takes to reject the accusations and thus helping to maintain the courtesy on the highways.

Traffic signal control system

            The case applies the dynamic Traffic signal control system takes to have some sensors installed beneath the ground. The sensors take to have the detection of the vehicles on in the terms of volume. The detector gets to have the communication from the sensor that will communicate and have the decision of the location that has the highest number of vehicles to move through the junction. The detectors get mounted under the road surface in all directions within the junction; a comparison gets done for the determination of the lane with the highest volume of vehicles to exit the junction. On the other hand, the pedestrians get to cross the junction by the pushing of the button within the traffic pole adjacent to the junction for them to get allowed to cross the junction. The system takes to reduce the congestion around the junction rather have the smooth flow of vehicles within the junction.

Traffic management system

            The traffic management system takes to work as the traffic signal control system only that it takes to synchronize the traffic signals for the optimization of the traffic flow on the road within the city. It works on the linking of the control system within the junctions such that the action at Junction A gets to affect the flow of the traffic within Junction B. the coordination gets done to relieve the congestion of the cities and make sure that traffic is on a smooth flow. An example of the traffic management system can be the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS).

Sensor systems

            The sensor systems are quite useful for the marine transportation. The best example is the radar communications in the controlling the ceiling of the ships. Also, the sensor systems are also applied to the air transport as well as the rail transport as it takes to involve the signals transmissions within the sensors installed within the communicating objects. The Raytheon systems and the automatic identification system as the examples of the sensor system, the systems take to enable the communication of the aircraft, the ships between the objects and the control towers. The Automatic Identification system (AIS) takes to contain the VHF transmitters, VHF TDMA receivers and the VHF DSC receiver and a standard marine link that gets the receivers and transmitters to exchange the information with the sensor systems. The system takes to operate regardless of the weather conditions as it takes to establish a strong link between the universes, between the sensors during the communication. The actions have been done automatic, and each station gets to establish its communication link that will never get the vessels colliding while in motion in the sea.

Pressure monitoring systems

            The pipeline transports oil or gas whereas the gas gets to flow within the different pipe pressure may get felt. The normal pressure for the flow of the gas within the pipeline gets determined based on the factors related to the pipe. The pressure changes must get detected for the determination of the gas leakage, the high consumption of the gas or the low consumption of the gas. The pressure sensors get mounted rather attached to the pipelines with the defined out of 0 to 5 volts and the information gets fed into the Neon Remote Terminal. The pressure within the pipeline gets read after let us 5 or 10 minutes, and the pressure gets sensed by the pressure sensors attached to the pipeline and the information gets transmitted to the Neon server via the determined network by the use of the standard web browser.

RFID

            The SCADA control system takes applied for the provision of the monitoring and the tracking of the appropriate transport vessels over long distances. At the same time, the logistics take to apply the RFID technology in the inventory management and the monitoring of products flow as well as the chain management. The RFID system contains the tags that in all the case gets attached to the item for which the tracking and controlling, as well as monitoring, will get undertaken. The tags get made of the integrated circuits that get connected to the antennae. The tag carries the information regarding the object on tracking. During the tracking and monitoring process, the reader gets to read the information from the tag and reflect to match the information to the database. The communication between the reader and the tag antennae gets achieved through the wireless connections. The RFID systems are useful in the logistics as well as the transportation industry. The system provides the controlling of the temperatures within the goods under transportations, monitoring of the expiry and detection of germs in food products (Hunt, Puglia & Puglia, 2007).

Profile ICS Security Devices

Traffic signal controllers

            The traffic signal controllers come in different versions to suit the requirements of the road users. The ST700P and the ST700SE are the related to the family of ST900 of Siemens that have got characterized with high-performance traffic controllers. They get designed for the application as the pedestrian controller with the employment of the Pelican, Puffin and the Toucan system controlling strategies. The current pedestrian controller of version ST750P takes to have the low voltage requirement. The ST700P controller got designed with the provision of the low voltage drives with the capability of having the integral OUT and the I/O cards expanding the controller. The application is compatible with other Siemens controllers.

Ramp meters 2070 model

            The ramp meters are the signal that defines the stop of the vehicles and the go of the vehicles to have the controlling of the frequency at which the vehicles takes to enter into the traffic. Ramp meters takes to operate as part of the large computer-operated system managed at the Traffic Management Centers (TMCs). The device takes to detect the traffic speed of the moving vehicles and the volume of the vehicle with the inbuilt magnetic loops and the radar. It is from the collected information that the device takes to control the flow of the vehicle depending on the volume of the vehicle flow. The model takes the communication protocols of McCain QuickComm, AB3418, Rs-232, IP. They have the operational modes of manual, fixed rate and the traffic responsive.

Surveillance security camera

            The security surveillance cameras provide pictures of quality and the provision of smooth video of the traffic scenarios. The security surveillance cameras are long life and get to function smoothly with the application of the different road end user needs. The specification that accompanies the cameras defines the suitability to monitoring of the vehicle parking and the roundabouts within the major highways. The security surveillance camera gets characterized with the high color contrast, picture quality, and the reliable performance.

The traffic control light.

            The traffic control light does provide controls to the road users on the joining to the active runways. It has three lights of green, red and yellow of each taking to define and mean an action to the road users. The TLC control lights have long visibility to the users, low maintenance expense with sufficient energy usage of the standard consumption of 100 W.

Security Controls

            The SCADA system has security concerns as the application of the system dependency on the network gets to have the introduction of different security challenges that should get addressed for the system delivery of the services. There are somegeneralsecuritythreatsand vulnerabilities that get to affect the SCADA networks the intrusions into the networks to compromise with the information and the solid communication within the SCADA systems. The notorious cybercrime attacks get to affect the systems. However, several mitigations have got laid down to have the control over the insecurity within the control systems that gets applied to the transportation and the logistics industries. The installed control devices get found outdoor such that they can get stolen the insecurity relating to the physical objects once should get checked, therefore. In the act of curbing the challenges facing SCADA networks, the organization should get the implementation of the security measures within the industry. The physical security measures should get enacted to make sure that the outdoor control system gets protected. Furthermore, the following measures should get undertaken improving the access control of the personnel to the control systems, enhance the security within the firewalls and intrusion detection systems applied to get avoid the damage caused by the intruders. The SCADA protocol analyzer for better configurations, cryptography, and key management to protect the data, device and operating system security-enhancing activities (INFOSEC, 2013)

ICS Security Best Practices

            The ICS security practices take curb on the attacks to the ICS network with the undertaking of activities such as the cross-site scripting. It takes to have the configuration of the firewalls to better ways for the prevention of the intrusion to the ICS network. The control of getting access to the internet should also be a concern. Furthermore, the enhancement of awareness to the employees and the respective persons will have the improving in undertaking activities with vigilance. Also, the updating of the patches gets to seal off the loops that attacker may get to use to gain the access to the ICS network. The network should not get susceptible to the attack exploits (Homeland Security, 2007).

The Vulnerability Continuous Monitoring Strategy

            The vulnerability strategy should get to have the involvement of the company, organization or the industry in the defining some standards to have the governing of the assets. The assets should get to meet the standards so as to reduce the possibility chances of failing to meet the security prevention mechanisms. Thus, they should be up to the standardized ICS architecture. Get to identify the vulnerability and develop a mechanism to prevent them within the industry infrastructure (PA Consulting Group, 2015).

References

Homeland Security, (2007).Recommended Practice Case Study: Cross-Site Scripting.

Hunt, V. D., Puglia, A., & Puglia, M. (2007). RFID: A guide to radio frequency identification. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Interscience.

INFOSEC INSITITUTE, (2013). Improving SCADA System Security. 

Kasilingam, R. G. (1998). Logistics and transportation: Design and planning. Dordrecht: Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.

PA Consulting Group, (2015). SECURITY FOR INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS: MANAGE VULNERABILITIES. 123 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9SR. United Kingdom

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in term paper help online if you need a similar paper you can place your order from Cheap Custom Research Papers Online.