ProSoft's “Phased Migration” Solutions - Control Design

also gives us visualization for our plant managers, so they handle
production in real time, and shift or expand production lines more
quickly in response to supply-chain issues and other situations.”
Traditional IT vs. control engineering confl icts were resolved mostly
because he now oversees both departments, and he’s encouraged
them to work together, Nidamaluri adds.
To serve present production and future plans, the campus local
area network (LAN) for Mahindra’s Chakan project was designed and
implemented to support applications such as Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP), plant data, IT data, business systems, security and alarms.
Each plant has its own network hub room, and uses a backbone of singlemode
10 Gbps fi beroptic cable between shops and multi-mode 1 Gbps
fi beroptic cable within each shop, which enables dual-path redundancy,
rerouting and self-healing during recovery. Th e body shops also use Cat.
6 UTP cable with IP67 bayonet jacks to withstand vibration and protect
against dust, water and oil (Figure 1). So far, system integrator Wipro
Technologies (www.wipro.com) and Molex report they’ve helped install
165 km of UTP/FTP cables and 124 km of OFC cables at the shops,
and have reserved space and capacity for planned wireless devices
in the future. Th is backbone also assists Chakan’s green initiative and
sustainability systems, such as heat recovery, solar panels, water treatment
and several manufacturing processes.
DIVIDE AND ORGANIZE
As important as leadership is to motivate cooperation, there are
practical and technical obstacles. Th ese can be overcome with logic,
organization and prioritization. It begins with the best way to divvy up
an industrial network, which is to partition it into logical, functional
subnetworks, and then separate and isolate these subnets with
managed Ethernet switches and/or fi rewalls. “Good fences make good
neighbors,” says the neighbor in Robert Frost’s poem, “Mending Wall,”
and this is especially true for today’s industrial networks.
Of course, sorting out all the process applications and network
systems they need is probably a little easier if much of their equipment
isn’t out in the middle of the sea. Th is was the challenge faced by system
integrator Cimation (www.cimation.com) of Metairie, La. In 2010, its
team was asked to implement an extensive Ethernet-based network,
including automation, supervisory control and data acquisition
(SCADA), cybersecurity and business functions for a fi xed oil and gas
processing platform in 2,000 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico. Th e
platform was previously operating in a limited capacity, but the owner
embarked on a capital improvements program to greatly increase its
capacity. Because the enhanced platform design would process a high
volume of about 30,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day, the owner
wanted the platform network to have maximum reliability and uptime.
Also, the owner asked Cimation to model and pre-prove the network
and wireless communications on shore, and then install them without
disrupting the platform’s existing operations.
Th e platform serves multiple wells that feed the facility via pipelines
that run along the seabed, and has processes that separate oil from
natural gas. Th e oil is pumped and the gas is compressed into pipelines
that deliver these products to facilities onshore. Th e network requires
2012 � Q3 � INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING
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