Many companies use remote maintenance to provide customers with faster service at lower costs. This requires access to production data for people outside the company, the availability and processability of large amounts of data in real time, and the consideration of cybersecurity aspects.
In a recently published article for German trade magazine Computer & Automation, Marián Hönsch, Director Product Management Industrial IIoT, explains how TTTECH Industrial and its edge computing platform Nerve are used as the secure basis for the remote maintenance solution VISTRA® Predict of gas compressor manufacturer HOERBIGER Wien GmbH.
“VISTRA® Predict is designed as an intuitive and simple tool to provide companies with recommendations for action. To do this, we need a secure and reliable infrastructure that can be seamlessly integrated into our solution,” explains Nikola Trifunovic, Embedded Software Developer at HOERBIGER Wien.
VISTRA® Predict is a fully connected solution for predictive maintenance of gas compressors that offers a web-based customer portal. Compressor wear is measured using sensors that must be sampled at a minimum of 50 kHz, requiring high data processing rates, as well as (pre-)processing of data at the edge and a secure connection to the cloud.
HOERBIGER Wien chose Nerve as the basis for VISTRA® Predict. According to Nikola Trifunovic, the reasons for their choice were: "One of the most important aspects in the ‘make or buy’ question and the decision for Nerve was the clear line in cybersecurity and the IEC 62442-4-2 product certification. Nerve provides the basis for enabling building blocks such as sensor data collection, remote access, and secure cloud connectivity. Since ready-made modules are already available, setup and installation are simple and straightforward."
Nerve can be installed on any hardware. It processes data in real time at the edge and forwards it in encrypted form for further analysis. It connects devices via a Management System in the cloud or on-site and offers cybersecurity features that enable compliance with the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), including:
- Role-based access control and secure remote access
- System hardening and offline operation for critical applications
- Network and resource isolation (as a virtual machine or Docker container) with encrypted communication
- Verification of component integrity and authenticity
- Centralized update and maintenance management
- Logging and monitoring for record keeping and event management
In addition to its basic functionalities and the secure platform, Nerve can be customized to the individual needs of a company with customer software in the form of Docker containers, virtual machines, and processes in a Soft-PLC module. HOERBIGER Wien, for example, uses the integrated soft PLC from CODESYS to access sensors and read data via fieldbus remote I/O, as well as Nerve Data Services to establish secure remote connections.
Find out more:
Computer & Automation (German): Einsatz von Nerve in der Fernwartungslösung von HOERBIGER Wien
