Analysis of the Requirements for Offering

Industrie 4.0 Applications as a Cloud Service

Waqas Ali Khan1, Lukasz Wisniewski1, Dorota Lang1, and Jürgen Jasperneite1,2
1
inIT – Institute Industrial IT, OWL University of Applied Sciences, 32657 Lemgo, Germany
waqas.khan@hs-owl.de, lukasz.wisniewski@hs-owl.de, dorota.lang@hs-owl.de, juergen.jasperneite@hs-owl.de
2
Fraunhofer IOSB-INA Application Center Industrial Automation, 32657 Lemgo, Germany
juergen.jasperneite@iosb-ina.fraunhofer.de

Abstract—Industrie 4.0 introduces a concept of digitalized
production by allowing agile and flexible integration of new
business models while maintaining manufacturing costs and
efficiency at the reasonable level. In addition, cloud computing is
one of the IT trends that is used nowadays to offer services on
demand from a virtual environment in enterprise and office
areas. The use of cloud computing in an industrial automation
domain in order to offer on-demand services, such as alarm flood
management or control as a service, is a promising solution. This
study examines how the cloud-based applications can meet the
Industrie 4.0 requirements concerning security, communication,
self-configuration, reliability, and asset administration shell.
Moreover, research challenges and existing gaps that need
further investigation are identified and discussed.
I. INTRODUCTION
Production systems are complex structures composed of
entities coming from different technological areas, such as
mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and
information technology (IT). They are continuously evolving
to fit current market circumstances to allow production
companies to remain competitive. The current trend is to
increase the connectivity of the ''things'' (robots, machines, etc.
and also human beings) participating in the production
processes and make systems smarter. This trend, including
also some additional aspects, has been defined at the
Hannover fair in 2011 as the fourth industrial revolution
(Industrie 4.0). According to authors in [1], Industrie 4.0 can
be defined as an Intelligent Technical System (ITS), which
should be adaptive, robust, and user-friendly to its
surroundings. In Germany, Industrie 4.0 has been initially
explored by the Federal Association for Information
Technology (BITKOM), Central Association of Electrical
Engineering and Electronics Industry (ZVEI), and Mechanical
Engineering Industry Association (VDMA) [2]. Similar ideas
such as Industrie 4.0 were established also outside the Europe.
For instance, in the United States it is called Industrial
Internet or in China Factory of the Future. According to
authors in [3], so far, phrase Industrie 4.0 has been used 484
times in academic and 1107 times in practical publications.
One of the important aspects of the Industrie 4.0 is to increase
connectivity between the industrial processes, by using new
trends from IT domain.
Cloud computing is one of the current IT trends, which has
proven its high potential in enterprise and office area in the
recent years. Implementation of cloud technology in the world
of industrial production opens entirely new business
environment. Use of cloud services in the industrial sector
gives the opportunity to create platforms that are able to
provide flexible control for industrial processes. It involves
e.g. an implementation of app-based software or cloud-based
functions, such as anomaly detection, product monitoring,
predictive maintenance, etc. [4].
The main aim of this paper is to identify the requirements
for Industrie 4.0, and also, to investigate how cloud
technology can address some of the open challenges.
Moreover, it is also to provide an overview of the current
research state, in the field of industrial automation and cloud
computing technology.
The remaining layout of the paper is as follows. Section I
comprises an introduction and a brief overview about the
Industrie 4.0 and cloud technology. Section II describes the
state of the art of the cloud technology, considering aspects,
such as cloud types and available cloud features. In Section
III, requirements of Industrie 4.0 applications are analysed.
Section IV provides a detailed overview about the use of the
cloud technology in the industrial automation. Based on this
overview, research gaps to be addressed in the future are
discussed in Section IV.
II. CLOUD COMPUTING
This section gives a brief overview of the cloud computing
technology in general. It provides also the cloud computing
definition, discusses available cloud architectures as well as
service-driven and deployment models. Moreover, it provides
an introduction to the edge cloud solution that is able to
support services with strict requirements in terms of low
latency.
A. Cloud Computing Definition
National Institute of Standards and Technology defined
cloud computing as “A model for enabling ubiquitous,
convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of
configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers,
storage, application and services) that can be rapidly
provisioned and released with minimal management effort or

l-))) 

Authorized licensed use limited to: BIBLIOTECA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA. Downloaded on May 31,2023 at 15:11:31 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 service provider interaction” [5]. The main idea extracted from
this definition is to make computing resources, location, and
device independent. This makes the computing resources to be
available at any place, assuming that the user can connect to
the cloud [6].
B. Cloud Computing Architecture
According to the definition in [7], the cloud computing
architecture can be divided into four layers: the hardware
layer, the infrastructure layer, the platform layer, and the
application layer, see Figure 1. A brief description of each
layer is given below [9].
1) Hardware Layer: Manages physical units that are part
of the cloud, such as servers, routers, switches and power
systems.
2) Infrastructure Layer: Organizes the provision of the
hardware resources, such as computing or disk storage, to the
users.
3) Platform Layer: Provides operating systems and
application frameworks as a service. By providing a
development platform as a service, it is possible to develop
and test applications, without installing any particular software
on a local machine.
4) Application Layer: Application layer comprises of
cloud applications, such as Facebook, YouTube, etc. These
applications are then offered to the end users as a service.
C. Cloud Computing Service Driven Model
Cloud computing is also classified in a service-driven
model, see more in [9]. As per this model, services are
provisioned on demand. This model can be defined as:
1) Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Providing
infrastructural services on demands such as Virtual Machines.
Examples of these services are Amazon EC2 or Flexi scale.
2) Platform as a Service (PaaS): Operating systems and
software development frameworks are provisioned on
demand.
3) Software as a Service (SaaS): Provisioning on-demand
cloud applications to end-users through the Internet.
D. Cloud Computing Deployment Model
Based on its deployment, cloud computing is classified into
different types as follows:
End User Application Layer SaaS
Software
Developer Platform Layer PaaS
Infrastructure Layer
IaaS
System
Administrators
Hardware Layer
Fig 1. Cloud Computing Architecture [8]

Authorized licensed use limited to: BIBLIOTECA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA. Downloaded on May 31,2023 at 15:11:31 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1) Public Cloud: A cloud owner provides services in terms
of cloud applications to end users. These services can be
accessed over the Internet. The main advantage of using such
cloud is that there is no need for establishing infrastructure in
terms of hardware/software installation, and maintenance.
2) Private Cloud: Compared to the public cloud, a private
cloud offers services within an organization. It provides
computing power as a service in a virtualized environment,
using an underlying pool of physical computing resources.
The purpose of using a private cloud is to provide the highest
degree of control and security over the cloud service.
3) Hybrid Cloud: To address limitations of a public and
private cloud, many organizations combine both approaches
by creating a hybrid cloud solution. In this approach, some
services are provisioned on demand from the private cloud,
while other services are offered from the public cloud.
4) Community Cloud: This type of cloud is established by
several organizations, which have similar requirements and
agree to share the same cloud infrastructure according to
defined policies and regulations. Since this cloud is used by
various organizations, CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) and
OPEX (Operational Expenditure) for cloud infrastructure are
also shared between them.
5) Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): This approach is
established on top of the public cloud platform. By using
VPC, isolation is achieved between different organizations
that use the same public cloud. Key benefit of using the VPC
is that it also provides a feature of Virtual Private Network
(VPN) that allows each user to design customizable topologies
and network security settings, such as firewall and intrusion
prevention system (IPS).
E. Edge Cloud
The Edge Cloud is a new architectural element that comes
into reality from the convergence of cloud computing and
mobile computing. It is located at the center of a three-tier
hierarchy, between the end-user and the central core cloud, as
shown in Figure 2. The Edge Cloud is defined as a standalone
or set of computers that bring specific cloud features close to
end-users (machines or plants). Since the basic cloud
infrastructure setup is far away from end-users, sometimes
they have to face higher Internet latency, which is not suitable
for time critical applications. For example, Amazon EC2 data
centres are located in only few cities around the world.
To achieve benefits from their computing power, the end-
user requires an Internet connection. Access to these services
sometimes becomes impossible, due to bad or no Internet
connectivity, making cloud computing technology unsuitable
or simply inefficient for the real-time applications [10]. In
Central Core
Edge
Cloud
Cloud
End User
Fig. 2. Edge Cloud in Machine to Cloud Hierarchy [12]
 addition to that, the Edge Cloud offers an additional layer of
security in order to protect end users against Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks at the edge of the
cloud [11]. Thus, the Edge Cloud is also referred to as a “data
centre in a box” with features of self-managing and less
computing resources that are offered to end-users with low
delay time.
III. INDUSTRIE 4.0: REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS
Industrie 4.0 has gained a lot of attention since its
introduction at the Hannover Fair in 2011. Various research
groups, universities, and companies have contributed to its
development. However, development efforts without agreeing
on common definition make the concept of Industrie 4.0
vague. “Platform Industrie 4.0” [13] and “Industrie 4.0
Working Group” [14], which are the key promoters of this
idea, were so far not able to propose a proper definition
including its all important features. Therefore, in this paper an
extensive literature review describing the requirements of
Industrie 4.0 has been conducted. The application scenarios
which have been considered while identifying and collecting
Industrie 4.0 requirements are: smart and adaptable factories,
cyber-physical systems (CPS), smart grids, order controlled
production, cloud computing, self-organizing and self-
optimizing plants. The terminologies used to describe these
requirements are derived from the literature review of [15] –
[21]. Requirements for creating a cloud-based industrial
application, such as reliability, security, data analysis, asset
administration shell, self-X, man to machine interaction, and
communication network, are summarized in Figure 3 and
discussed in detail below.
A. Security and Data Privacy
While offering services from a cloud to end users, several
security aspects have to be considered, such as (see also
Figure 3):
1) Secure Communication Channel: Since communication
between a cloud and a machine takes place over the Internet,
the use of a virtual private network (VPN) is highly
recommanded for secure exchange of data. Moreover, TLS
(Transport Layer Security) and SSL (Secure Socket Layer)
protocols should be used to transfer information between a
machine and a cloud.
2) Secure Identities and Platforms: Unique identification
and authentication by means of cryptographic keys for end
users and machines is required for the secure exchange of
data.
3) Self-Healing: Currently, a communication channel and
machine performance are monitored manually with the help of
various network management software tools which allow to
detect anomalies and certain problems. However, if a problem
has to be solved, it is typically perfomed manually, based on
the user experience. For a cloud-based industrial application, a
self-monitoring and self-healing procedure would be

Authorized licensed use limited to: BIBLIOTECA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA. Downloaded on May 31,2023 at 15:11:31 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
necessary to optimally respond to security threats in real-time
and without any human intervention.
The Federal Office for Information Security of Germany
published the topmost security threats to industrial control
systems of 2016 [22]. The serious security threats concerning
the cloud environment are listed below:
1) Physical resources of a cloud are not isolated and
various parties use the same resource by means of different
virtual machines (VM). In case of improper management of
VMs, leakage of customer data becomes possible.
2) The cloud owner has the full right to evaluate and
verify customer data stored inside the cloud. This can lead to a
manipulation of process and product data.
Besides the above-mentioned security threats, poor data
privacy and lack of encryption inside the cloud environment is
also a key problem that still has not been solved by many
cloud providers. Therefore, for applications hosted in a cloud,
there is a need for an adequate security framework that offers
end to end security solution to the cloud end users.
B. Communication
The communication requirements for a cloud-hosted
application, such as QoS and bandwidth, have been identified
and marked in Figure 3. Detailed description of each of them
is presented below:
1) Quality of Service (QoS): Quality of service
requirements of Industrie 4.0 applications may differ from
each other. Table 1 shows various QoS parameters, namely
latency, packet error rate (PER), and data rate for different
applications. Since QoS requirements are different for every
communication procedure, a negotiation of QoS parameters
should be included as well. The negotiation should be
performed optimally without any human intervention, a priori
to a delivery of a new service. This would help to manage the
network resources efficiently and allow to create different
business models. Thus, there is a need for adaptable QoS
provisioning, advertising, and discovery procedures from a
cloud to a machine that fulfills this demand.
2) Bandwidth Requirement for Data Transfer: Smart grids
require for monitoring their infrastructure the data transfer rate
of at least 500 kbps/node [24]. To ensure this, smart grid
operators have to rely on communication link providers.
Communication link providers sometimes face congestion on
the communication link, which makes it difficult to transfer
the data to a monitoring center on time. Therefore, there is a
need for use of protocols like DASH [25] that handles such
situation by classifying the data into different files and
assigning to them different priority levels according to their
importance. Afterwards, these files are assigned with different
bit rates according to their prioritiy level. In this way, all data
is successfully transfered to a monitoring center without losing
a single piece of information.
 Fig. 3. Industrie 4.0 Requirements [15] - [21]
D. Reliability
Table 1. QoS Parameters for Industrial Applications [23]
QoS Motion Condition Augmented Reliability is defined as “the ability of a system or
Parameter Control Monitoring Reality component to perform its required functions under stated
Latency 250 μs – 1 ms 100 ms 10 ms conditions for a specific period of time” [26]. Industrial
PER 1e-8 1e-5 1e-5 applications, such as smart grids, require reliability ranging
Data Rate kbit/s – Mbit/s Kbit/s Mbit/s – Gbit/s from 99 to 99.99% [24]. Such high reliability is usually a big
problem to offer from a public cloud. Therefore, for cloud-
C. Self-Configuration
hosted applications the reliability was defined as the ability of
In case of a cloud-based industrial application, self- the service that still offers its partial or full features even in
configuration is required between a machine and a cloud for case of sudden unforeseen scenarios such as server crash down
flexible integration. Integration of machines and plants with or cloud interface connectivity issues. Thus, fallback
the cloud platform needs a lot of manual configuration techniques need to be developed so that the application
services, a few of them are as follows: operates properly even if e.g. a communication link gets down
1) generation of user credentials, such as access key and as in the example discussed in [27].
secret access key for accessing the cloud platforms,
2) transfer of keys to a machine or a plant, E. Asset Administration Shell (AAS)
3) storage of keys, Industrie 4.0 introduces the concept of digitalized
4) installation of a certain SDK to access cloud features production in the engineering and manufacturing industry
5) management of keys , which will help to achieve a low-cost production by shifting
6) exchange and installation of security certificates, etc. different real world services to the virtual environment of IT
world (cloud). This concept requires the ability of industrial
To reduce these manual efforts there is a need for a devices to interpret and understand each other. The problem is
mechanism similar as in case of USB that allows to simply relatively solved at the fieldbus and controller level by using
plug a cloud service into the machine or a plant, configure and technologies such as OPC-UA and DDS (Data Distribution
integrate it with the cloud, optimally without any manual Service for real-time systems). However, there still exists the
intervention. challenge to make devices smart enough so that they can
communicate with each other as a prerequisite for cooperation



Authorized licensed use limited to: BIBLIOTECA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA. Downloaded on May 31,2023 at 15:11:31 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 scenarios such as intercompany communication, a run-time
order based productions, etc. This demands new techniques
and approaches for an exchange of information and
knowledge between devices participating in the processes in a
virtual environment [28]. To meet these demands, the concept
of the Asset Administration Shell (AAS) was devised. The
AAS gives a digital representation of all information being
available about and from a physical component. Since so far
there exists no standardized method for representing the AAS,
further research is required to fill this gap.
IV. RELATED WORK AND RESEARCH GAPS
In this section, existing work related to the cloud computing
in the context of industrial automation is presented in detail.
Many of the current research projects, such as [25] and [27],
draw attention to the migration of services from the factory
floor level to the cloud domain so that more control over the
production plant from a remote site can be achieved. In this
section, the investigation of existing works is categorized and
presented on the basis of framework development and
requirements of Industrie 4.0. Moreover, research gaps for
each requirement that still need to be explored are discussed
below.
A. Cloud Manufacturing Framework and Architecture
Development
In 2010, Li et. al [29] introduced the term cloud
manufacturing. In this work, the authors discussed the
impediments related to the implementation of a network for a
large manufacturing plant. Moreover, the authors proposed the
use of cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) to solve
that problem and introduced the service oriented networked
manufacturing model in the form of cloud manufacturing. To
further develop the idea of the cloud manufacturing, in [30],
Tao et. al presented an architecture of cloud manufacturing
with respect to different cloud deployment models. Besides
that, the authors also identified the challenges of
standardization in this domain. Xu [31] in 2012 highlighted
several important features of cloud computing that need to be
adopted in industrial automation for the purpose of cloud
manufacturing. To further extend the use of cloud in industrial
control systems for long distance communication Wu et. al
[32] proposed the future trends that include development of
inter-factory industrial control systems, need of new business
models, and new information sharing model between
industrial devices. Also, Givehchi [33] in 2013, proposed a
new architecture for using industrial applications from a cloud.
Langmann [34] in 2014 introduced the architecture for web
technologies based on an automation system. Brevoid et. al
[35] in 2015 discussed important technical challenges related
to the usage of IoT in industrial automation and proposed
several potential solutions to these challenges. Besides all
these works, Goldschmidt et. al [36] in 2016, for the first time,
proposed the lightweight solution in terms of cloud platform
that uses the heavyweight virtual machines and servers. In that
work, the authors used Docker and executed multiple PLC
services from the Docker environment.
1
SPDY (Speedy) is an open protocol that is developed by Google for sending
the web data in compressed form.

Authorized licensed use limited to: BIBLIOTECA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA. Downloaded on May 31,2023 at 15:11:31 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
B. Industrie 4.0 Requirements
Apart from work on the concept and development of the
architecture, in the past, several cloud-based industrial
applications have also been introduced by various research
groups. These works are described below according to the
Industrie 4.0 requirements.
1) Security:
In [37] the authors introduced the service-oriented
architecture approach for a SCADA system. They presented
an implementation of a SCADA system as a service from a
cloud. In their work, the authors assume that all entities
operate within a single user domain and require the same
security level. This assumption is no longer valid for the
implementation of SCADA in a heterogeneous environment
where different entities from different domains require distinct
security levels. Similarly, another approach is described in
[38], in which DCS (Distributed Control System) is offered as
services from a cloud. This approach implements the solution
for a private cloud only, therefore security threats for public
cloud implementations need to be investigated. Besides the
above, in [39] the authors offered distributed integration of
Profinet networks as a service from a cloud. In this solution,
named “ProfiCloud”, all devices communicate with each other
over the Internet. Therefore, TLS protocol is used to ensure
the security of transferred data. However, it is a proprietary
solution that works only with certain vendors’ devices,
therefore not applicable for heterogeneous vendor
environments. Thus various security perspectives related to
the industrial automation, such as trusted hardware security
modules, software layer security (usage of the micro kernel,
the addition of cryptographic services), upgradation of
management platform and security concerns, in case of public
cloud usage is still an open area of research.
2) Communication:
In [25], the authors suggest to extend the HTTP protocol
by adding the feature of SPDY1 (open networking protocol),
which compresses the HTTP header and accelerates
transmission of data and reduces the latency of an application
over the web. Besides that, in [40] different web-based
communication protocols are evaluated by examining the
bandwidth usage during the transfer of data from a machine to
a cloud. WAK (Web Access Kit), WebSocket and PHP are
evaluated in this work. The authors conclude that WAK takes
less bandwidth as compared to the other two. Also in [41],
Goldschmidt et. al proposed a concept of cache memory in a
gateway (a device used to connect an industrial machine and a
cloud). This cache can temporarily store the data in case of
low-bandwidth and send it later to a cloud when the
bandwidth congestion is reduced. Another approach
addressing the bandwidth requirement is presented in [42]. It
introduces the fog computing in the context of IoT. In this
approach, after careful examination of sensor data at a
gateway, only necessary information that is required for the
IoT application is transferred to a cloud. To implement this
approach in industrial automation, the computational power of
a gateway (a device used to connect field devices or machines
to a cloud) needs to be enhanced so that it can handle a
 complex machine learning algorithm that is used for
examining the data. Thus, various communication
requirements for Industrie 4.0 were examined but there are
still areas which need further attention and investigation. A
few of these open challenges for cloud-hosted Industry 4.0
applications are discussed below.
a) Real-Time Requirements: Industrial applications and
networks require real-time guarantees to fulfill control tasks.
Three types of real-time networks are classified in the
industrial automation domain, as shown in Table 2. This
classification is based on the communication cycle time. There
have been many cloud-based industrial applications developed
and evaluated for the class 1 of real-time networks. But
offering services from the cloud for the class 2 and class 3 of
real-time networks that involve the non-deterministic WAN
behavior increases the severity level of meeting these real-
time requirements. Although the approaches in [47] and [27]
offer control as-a-service from a cloud, they are delivered
from a local cloud present on the factory floor. The Edge
Cloud is one of the possible solutions that address this issue by
making an industrial controller as a gateway. The gateway is
then responsible for handling the class 2 and class 3
applications, while the rests of applications are offered as
services from a cloud.
b) Application Protocol from a Machine to a Cloud:
Adoption of methods and communication protocols suitable
for transfering data from a machine to a cloud is still an open
gap and no standardization efforts have been made in this
direction. Different cloud platforms use different
communication protocols for this purpose. For instance,
Amazon Web Services use MQTT and HTTP while Google
App Engine uses WebRTC and HTTP for transfering data. In
[40], the authors present a time analysis study in which the
OPC DA protocol was used to extract and send data from a
PLC to a cloud. The average recorded transfer time was 34.87
msec for the instruction transfer to and from a PLC to a web
client. Besides this, according to the authors’ best knowledge
no other benchmark studies have been performed to
investigate the data transfer time of industrial data to a cloud.
It is therefore important to classify communication protocols
according to specific industrial applications because many
applications require hard real-time requirements that are not
satisfied by web-based protocols. One possible solution for a
local cloud in the future is to use the combination of OPC UA
with TSN to guarantee the deterministic time required at the
factory floor level, and then use the web technology to transfer
data from a machine to a cloud.
Table 2. Real-Time Network Classification [49]
Types Cycle Time Comm. Possible
Technology Application
Slower
Class 1 ≥ 100 ms DCOM, TCP/IP Process
Automation
RT Ethernet Factory
Class 2 1 to 100 ms
(Profinet) Automation
Motion
Class 3 < 1 ms Profinet IRT
Control

Authorized licensed use limited to: BIBLIOTECA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA. Downloaded on May 31,2023 at 15:11:31 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
c) Conserve Network Bandwidth / Data Aggregation: An
offshore oil rig generates almost 500 GB of data weekly [48].
Due to remote access to the Internet at low bandwidth,
continuous streaming of this data to the cloud becomes
impossible. Data Aggregation is one of the possible solutions
for such problems. Here data aggregation corresponds to a
collection of information from different machines inside a
plant. After collecting this data, only useful piece of
information is then sent to a cloud for further analysis. In this
way the data size is reduced and the information that is
required only for the cloud application can be transfer to the
cloud. In the data aggregation case, data can aggregate at the
gateway (a device used to connect cloud and plant machines).
Important questions that need to be answered in this approach
are that: Which data need to be stored and which not? What
should be the time interval after which data is sent to a cloud?
Another approach is the classification of data on the fly, which
is discussed in [42]. In this work, Data in Motion (DMo)
protocol for payload handling on Cisco edge routers is
discussed in the context of IoT. In this paper, the authors
discussed the problem of getting temperature information that
lies within a specific range. To address this problem, the
authors used the K-means Machine Learning algorithm that
classifies the sensors data and gives only that values defined in
the required range, thus allowing to optimize the data transfer
to the cloud. Further investigation of this or similar protocols
in industrial automation domain is still an open area for
researchers.
d) Real-Time Hypervisor: Cloud platforms used in
various research projects are installed on the hypervisors (a
computer program that is used to isolate operating systems and
applications from the underlying computer hardware). Many
of them do not support real-time behavior for the virtualized
components of the cloud. Therefore, use of real-time
hypervisors, such as RT-XEN and virtualization of industrial
applications on them need to be considered and further
explored.
3) Self-Configuration:
Plug-and-Play is the idea required in the configuration of
newly added devices, machines, or modules, which saves
human efforts and time. The approach that is discussed in [43]
addresses the problem of Plug-and-Play by presenting the auto
configuration approach for the Real-Time Ethernet (RTE)
networks only. In this approach, OPC-UA is used for
discovery of devices in real-time. After that, the authors used
SNMP for identification and configuration of attached
modules. Another approach presented in [44] suggests the
modification of sensors interface for easy integration with the
control system. All these works address the device level
integration but they do not explore the case of a cloud-based
application, machine or plant level integration.
4) Reliability:
To fulfil the requirement of reliability, different research
projects adopted different methods. In [27], Gilani et. al
presented the approach for the soft real-time control
applications. In this work, an alternative control is provided in
case of broken communication links between machines and
 Table 3. Categorization of Projects on the basis of Industrie 4.0 requirements
Cloud based Industrial Automation Projects
Requirements [25] [27] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]
Security
Communication
Self-Configuration
Reliability
Asset Administration Shell
the cloud. However, this concept is evaluated only for the
local cloud platform, no evaluations and results are provided
for the case of the public cloud. In a research project
pICASSO [25], the authors presented an approach, in which
control-as-a-service is offered from the cloud. Reliability is
added by introducing additional local control at the factory
floor level, which comes into action when a communication
link between machine and a cloud is broken. In this work,
performance is evaluated and compared when offering the
services from LAN as well as WAN. Similarly, in [45], the
authors provided reliability by assuring multiple Internet
connections between a machine and a cloud application.
Similar concept is also found in [38], in which multiple
communication links are proposed. Another work focused on
redundancy is presented in [46]. Here, Hegazy presented an
implementation of industrial controllers inside a cloud. In this
work, he addresses the reliability by introducing redundant
controller inside the cloud. Although all these approaches
address the reliability at different levels, there are still open
areas which need to be further investigated for a reliable cloud
application. For example, load balancing of communication
link or fault tolerance techniques used instead of adding
redundancy inside the cloud.
5) Asset Administration Shell (AAS):
No work regarding the AAS is found in the literature
review for the industrial application that is offered from the
cloud as a service. However, a few requirements for the AAS
for cloud-based industrial applications are identified and
discussed as follows:
a) Digital Representation of Machine Inside the Cloud:
Digital representation is the replica of a machine inside the
cloud that provides the latest state of the machine for the
processes inside the cloud. This virtual representation can be
used to retrieve the latest information of the machine before it
gets offline in case of problems with the network connectivity.
This also helps to increase the efficiency of the cloud
application when connectivity resumes by minimizing the time
of not getting the updated information from the machine or
plant. Since it represents the current state of the machine, it
can be used for comparison with models that are used for
anomalies identification and faults optimization purposes.
b) Context Aware Semantics Transfer to a Cloud:
To build a virtual representation of a device or continuously
update it inside the cloud, it is necessary that context-aware
information is transferred inside the cloud. Basic data
exchange formats such as Automation ML and Semantics

Authorized licensed use limited to: BIBLIOTECA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA. Downloaded on May 31,2023 at 15:11:31 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
[45] [46] [47]
Web technologies can be used to model the plant engineering
information. Semantics required to describe local and global
vocabularies for that purpose is still an open area for
researchers as discussed in [2].
V. CONCLUSION
Cloud computing is a technological trend from the IT
domain that can be used to offer various industrial applications
on demand. In this paper, the analysis of the requirements for
the cloud-hosted industrial applications was conducted.
Afterwards, challenges and research gaps that need further
exploration were presented. Table 3 presents which
Industrie 4.0 requirements were tackled by which industrial
automation projects regarding cloud computing . As it can be
seen, security, communication, and reliability requirements
have been discussed in several projects, while asset
administration shell and self-configuration have not been
sufficiently addressed and remain open to future research
questions.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work is funded by the German Federal Ministry of
Education and Research (BMBF) for project ADIMA under
grant number 03FH019PX5.
REFERENCES
[1] Ehrlich, Marco, Lukasz Wisniewski, and Jürgen Jasperneite. "Usage of
Retrofitting for Migration of Industrial Production Lines to Industry
4.0."
[2] Vogel-Heuser, Birgit, and Dieter Hess. "Guest Editorial Industry 4.0–
Prerequisites and Visions." IEEE Transactions on Automation Science
and Engineering 13.2 (2016): 411-413.
[3] Hermann, Mario, Tobias Pentek, and Boris Otto. "Design Principles for
Industrie 4.0 Scenarios." 2016 49th Hawaii International Conference on
System Sciences (HICSS). IEEE, 2016.
[4] KUKA, “Industrie 4.0” [Online]. Available: https://www.kuka.com/-
/media/kuka-corporate/documents/press/broschuereindustrie40en.pdf
[5] Mell, Peter, and Tim Grance. "The NIST definition of cloud computing."
(2011).
[6] Shaukat, Usman, et al. "Cloudlet deployment in local wireless networks:
Motivation, architectures, applications, and open challenges." Journal of
Network and Computer Applications 62 (2016): 18-40.
[7] Abbasov, Babak. "Cloud computing: State of the art reseach issues."
Application of Information and Communication Technologies (AICT),
2014 IEEE 8th International Conference on. IEEE, 2014.
[8] Zhang, Qi, Lu Cheng, and Raouf Boutaba. "Cloud computing: state-of-
the-art and research challenges." Journal of internet services and
applications 1.1 (2010): 7-18.
 [9] Givehchi, Omid, and Jürgen Jasperneite. "Industrial automation services
as part of the Cloud: First experiences." Proceedings of the
Jahreskolloquium Kommunikation in der Automation–KommA,
Magdeburg (2013).
[10] Bahtovski, Aleksandar, and Marjan Gusev. "Cloudlet challenges."
Procedia Engineering 69 (2014): 704-711.
[11] Simanta, Soumya, et al. "A reference architecture for mobile code
offload in hostile environments." International Conference on Mobile
Computing, Applications, and Services. Springer Berlin Heidelberg,
2012.
[12] Panda, Mr RN, M. Dash, and S. S. Pattanaik. "A Review on the
Challenges and Growth of Cloudlets." International Journal of
Engineering Research and Technology. Vol. 2. No. 11 (November-
2013). ESRSA Publications, 2013.
[13] Plattform Industrie 4.0, Neue Chancen für unsere Produktion – 17
Thesen des wissenschaftlichen Beirats der Plattform Industrie 4.0,
Berlin, 2014.
[14] Kagermann, H., W. Wahlster, and J. Helbig, eds., Recommendations for
implementing the strategic initiative Industrie 4.0: Final report of the
Industrie 4.0 Working Group, Frankfurt, 2013.
[15] Waidner, Michael, and Michael Kasper. "Security in industrie 4.0-
challenges and solutions for the fourth industrial revolution." 2016
Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition
(DATE). IEEE, 2016.
[16] Jasperneite, Jürgen. "Towards the smart factory–Status and open issues."
9th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and
Factory Automation (ETFA)(Keynote). 2014.
[17] Working Paper, Platform Industrie 4.0 “Interaction Model for Industrie
I4.0 Components” [Online]. Available: http://www.plattform-
i40.de/I40/Redaktion/EN/Downloads/Publikation/interaction-model-I40-
components.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=7
[18] Working Paper, Platform Industrie 4.0 “Structure of the Administration
Shell” [Online]. Available: http://www.plattform-
i40.de/I40/Redaktion/EN/Downloads/Publikation/structure-of-the-
administration-shell.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=5
[19] Discussion Paper, Platform Industrie 4.0 “Network-based
communication for Industrie 4.0” [Online]. Available:
http://www.plattform-
i40.de/I40/Redaktion/EN/Downloads/Publikation/network-based-
communication-for-i40.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4
[20] Working Paper, Platform Industrie 4.0 “Technical Overview: Secure
Identities” [Online]. Available: http://www.plattform-
i40.de/I40/Redaktion/EN/Downloads/Publikation/secure-
identities.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=7
[21] Schleipen, Miriam, et al. "Requirements and concept for Plug-and-
Work." at-Automatisierungstechnik 63.10 (2015): 801-820.
[22] BSI, “Industrial Control System Security - Top 10 Threats and
Countermeasures 2016, Version 1.2” [Online]. Available:
https://www.allianz-fuer-cybersicherheit.de/ACS/DE/_/downloads/BSI-
CS_005E.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3
[23] Dr. Andreas Müller, Robert Bosch GmbH 2015, Contribution to the
discussion session on “Radio communication for Industrie 4.0” on May,
28th, 2015 at the ITG-expert comittee 7.2 radio systems
[24] US. DOE, “Communications requirements of Smart Grid technologies,”
2010
[25] Kretschmer, Felix, et al. "Communication extension for cloud-based
machine control of simulated robot processes." 2016 IEEE International
Conference on Industrial Technology (ICIT). IEEE, 2016.
[26] IEEE Std 610 - IEEE Standard Computer Dictionary. A Compilation of
IEEE Standard Computer Glossaries, 1990.
[27] Gilani, Syed Shiraz, et al. "Alternative controls for soft real-time
industrial control services in case of broken cloud links." Emerging
Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA), 2016 IEEE 21st
International Conference on. IEEE, 2016.
[28] Halilaj, Lavdim, Diego Collarana, and Michael Hoffmeister. "Towards a
Semantic Administrative Shell for Industry 4.0 Components." 2016
IEEE Tenth International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC).
IEEE, 2016.

Authorized licensed use limited to: BIBLIOTECA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CANTABRIA. Downloaded on May 31,2023 at 15:11:31 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
[29] Li, Bo-Hu, et al. "Cloud manufacturing: a new service-oriented
networked manufacturing model." Computer integrated manufacturing
systems 16.1 (2010): 1-7.
[30] Tao, F., et al. "Cloud manufacturing: a computing and service-oriented
manufacturing model." Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture (2011):
0954405411405575.
[31] Xu, Xun. "From cloud computing to cloud manufacturing." Robotics and
computer-integrated manufacturing 28.1 (2012): 75-86.
[32] Wu, Dazhong, et al. "Cloud manufacturing: Strategic vision and state-of-
the-art." Journal of Manufacturing Systems 32.4 (2013): 564-579.
[33] Givehchi, Omid, Henning Trsek, and Juergen Jasperneite. "Cloud
computing for industrial automation systems—A comprehensive
overview." 2013 IEEE 18th Conference on Emerging Technologies &
Factory Automation (ETFA). IEEE, 2013.
[34] Langmann, R., and L. Meyer. "Automation services from the cloud."
Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV), 2014 11th
International Conference on. IEEE, 2014.
[35] Breivold, Hongyu Pei, and Kristian Sandstr. "Internet of Things for
Industrial Automation--Challenges and Technical Solutions." 2015 IEEE
International Conference on Data Science and Data Intensive Systems.
IEEE, 2015.
[36] Goldschmidt, Thomas, and Stefan Hauck-Stattelmann. "Software
Containers for Industrial Control." Software Engineering and Advanced
Applications (SEAA), 2016 42th Euromicro Conference on. IEEE, 2016.
[37] Karnouskos, Stamatis, and Armando Walter Colombo. "Architecting the
next generation of service-based SCADA/DCS system of systems."
IECON 2011-37th Annual Conference on IEEE Industrial Electronics
Society. IEEE, 2011.
[38] Schneider, Martin, et al. "Cloud Computing im Kontext eines
Prozessleitsystems." atp edition 55.01-02 (2013): 74-81.
[39] PHEONIX CONTACT, "PROFICLOUD TECHNOLOGY." [Online].
Available:
https://www.phoenixcontact.com/assets/downloads_ed/local_de/web_d
wl_promotion/PROFICLOUD.pdf
[40] Makarov, O., R. Langmann, and B. Frank. "Signal time deterministic for
process control applications from the cloud." 2014 11th International
Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation (REV).
2014.
[41] Goldschmidt, Thomas, et al. "Cloud-Based Control: A Multi-tenant,
Horizontally Scalable Soft-PLC." 2015 IEEE 8th International
Conference on Cloud Computing. IEEE, 2015.
[42] Gazis, Vangelis, et al. "Components of fog computing in an industrial
internet of things context." Sensing, Communication, and Networking-
Workshops (SECON Workshops), 2015 12th Annual IEEE International
Conference on. IEEE, 2015.
[43] Dürkop, Lars, et al. "Using opc-ua for the autoconfiguration of real-time
ethernet systems." 2013 11th IEEE International Conference on
Industrial Informatics (INDIN). IEEE, 2013.
[44] Demin, Evgenii, et al. "IEC 61499 Distributed control enhanced with
cloud-based web-services." Industrial Electronics and Applications
(ICIEA), 2015 IEEE 10th Conference on. IEEE, 2015.
[45] White Paper, Indusoft “Cloud computing for scada” [Online], Available:
http://www.indusoft.com/Portals/0/PDF/WhitePapers/Whitepaper_Clou
dComputing.pdf
[46] Hegazy, Tamir, and Mohamed Hefeeda. "Industrial automation as a
cloud service." IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems
26.10 (2015): 2750-2763.
[47] Givehchi, Omid, et al. "Control-as-a-service from the cloud: A case
study for using virtualized PLCs." Factory Communication Systems
(WFCS), 2014 10th IEEE Workshop on. IEEE, 2014.
[48] White Paper, Cisco Press “Fog Computing and the Internet of Things:
Extend the Cloud to Where the Things Are” [Online]. Available:
https://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en_us/solutions/trends/iot/docs/computing
-overview.pdf
[49] Ethernet to the Factory Solution Overview [Online]. Available:
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/solutions/Verticals/EttF/EttFDIG/
ch1_EttF.html