Introducing Unified Namespace (UNS) for Industrial IoT: A New Paradigm for Streamlined Asset Management
Industry 4.0 is driving a revolution in the way that businesses operate and manage their data. The increasing volume and complexity of data generated by Industrial IoT (IIoT) devices, however, creates significant challenges for data management and analysis. To overcome these challenges, Unified Namespace (UNS) is emerging as a potential solution providing a standardized and consistent naming convention for assets, data, and services across the enterprise, streamlining data integration, reducing costs, and improving asset tracking and maintenance.
The evolution of digital technologies has led to the need to manage an increasing number of resources distributed across heterogeneous environments. Moreover, the growing complexity of distributed system architectures makes it increasingly difficult to maintain a unified view of the available resources. In this context, the Unified Namespace represents a solution to simplify resource management and improve system scalability, since it provides a way to have a single namespace for all the resources of a distributed system or an organization. It is easy to imagine how congested the network can be if the factory floor, which consists of thousands of devices and IoT-enabled resources, begins transmitting data from the Operational Technology (OT) side of the factory over to the Information Technology (IT). [i] Implementing a Unified Namespace means that these resources can be referenced using a single name, regardless of where they are located or how they are accessed, simplifying resource management itself, and improving system scalability, as it is not necessary to know their specific location.
Identifying the key challenges in manufacturing
There are several key manufacturing obstacles when it comes to data and that would benefit from the adoption of a Unified Namespace, including:
- Data silos: Manufacturing facilities often have multiple systems that generate and store data, such as sensors, production equipment, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The Disadvantage of these technologies is that maintaining discrete connections can be very difficult and and installing new software applications for a need is challenging due to all these connections having to be re-established.[ii] Furthermore, these systems may use different naming conventions, making it difficult to correlate data across systems.
- Lack of visibility: When data is stored in silos, it can be difficult to get a comprehensive view of all the data related to a particular asset or process. This lack of visibility can make it challenging to optimize manufacturing processes and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Inefficiency in data entry and retrieval: Workers may need to spend more time looking for or entering the right data into multiple systems.
- Integration challenges: Integrating data from different systems can be complex and time-consuming, especially when different naming conventions are involved.
- Mergers and acquisitions: When manufacturing facilities merge or acquire other facilities, they may need to integrate data from multiple systems with different naming conventions. A Unified Namespace can make this process easier and less disruptive.
Unified Namespace (UNS): definition and functionality
The Unified Namespace, or central repository, is the hub of an organization’s networks, for all the smart nodes in the business to go get that data point from. Software providing this service is commonly referred to as a “data broker”. Essentially, a Unified Namespace is a middleware solution/centralized repository of structured data to which any application or device can subscribe or publish. In manufacturing, all shop-floor components, sensors, machines, PLCs, SCADA, and robots would publish data to the Unified Namespace. Components that are not IIoT-ready can be connected to the network by placing them behind an IIoT gateway that publishes information on their behalf to relevant categories. In this way its location data is available to every participant joining the network. Enterprise applications such as MES, ERP, and Cloud Analytics subscribe to the UNS to receive data as events, they then use that information to execute tasks and, in some circumstances, publish relevant data back into the UNS for other nodes to consume. A Unified Namespace is intended to be the “single source of truth” for an organization’s production data and is a key component of industrial architectures that leverage the Industry 4.0 concept. Manufacturers who implement it, can build a hub-and-spoke layout, providing all major systems with a direct link to the UNS.
Saying that UNS is the single source of truth for all information means that it is the point of communication between all layers of the stack. Then, what is needed is to organize the business to ensure that the necessary data is available from the UNS.
Additionally, the success of this approach relies on lightweight “report by exception” communication protocols, consuming traffic only when needed, such as MQTT. MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is the most commonly used messaging protocol for the Internet of Things (IoT), it was designed for industrial devices with very small computing capabilities and inconsistent network connections. It allows a theoretically infinite number of devices to exchange information without having a stable connection. When it comes to UNS, MQTT is complemented by Sparkplug, an open-source software specification (set of guidelines) for MQTT, which defines a standard for structuring the payload of MQTT messages. This standardization facilitates interoperability between different devices and systems that use MQTT for communication.
This technology ensures that the data broker, which makes up the Unified Namespace, can handle the huge amount of data flowing through them and minimizes the load on ‘satellite’ systems [iii].
A Unified Namespace can improve interoperability and standardization across different systems and domains, enabling seamless communication and management of resources. This can reduce the risk of misconfigurations and other security issues that can arise from using different naming conventions and communication protocols. The implementation needs to aim for a secure UNS, compliantly with the security-by-design concept, integrating security measures from the very beginning of the development process and throughout the whole lifecycle: conducting threat modeling and prioritizing access control, authentication, and encryption, ensuring devices have built-in security, implementing network security measures, and using secure communication protocols. That’s how UNS comes as a component of a broader security solution to protect the IIoT from cyber-attacks and data breaches.
How to develop a UNS?
To execute a Unified Namespace in manufacturing, first of all, the organization is required to identify the key systems and devices in the factory or plant that need to be integrated into a Unified Namespace. This could include everything from sensors and production machines to ERP systems and maintenance management software.
The next steps concern:
- Assess and identify the different levels of the enterprise hierarchy. To build a Unified Namespace structure, it is best practice to use ISA-95 (International Society of Automation-95) levels to create pockets of information that make up the enterprise hierarchy, needed to organize the business:
1.1 The Cell level holds information that is relevant to that specific Work Cell.
1.2 The Line holds information that is relevant to a particular Production Line.
1.3 The structure foresees repeating the same convention for Area and Enterprise levels.
Note: While the ISA-95 standard serves as a solid guideline, if it does not fit the true structure of the business considered it is better to create an ad hoc system, unique to the business. - Define the data types that you want to store and pockets of information that reflect the different areas of the organization. For example, at the enterprise level, you might want to store data such as financial information and production forecasts and pockets of information for sales data, and production data. At the equipment level, you might want to store data such as operating parameters and maintenance records and pockets of information for operating, maintenance and calibration data.
- Create a common data format. To ensure that all the data can be integrated into a Unified Namespace, create a common data format that can be used across all levels of the enterprise hierarchy. This could be a standard format such as OPC-UA or MQTT, or a proprietary format developed specifically for your organization. The data format can be created using Sparkplug, it includes a data model, a data encoding format, and a set of best practices to enable data interoperability between devices and systems.
- Establish a central hub or gateway: It involves creating a centralized system that facilitates communication, data sharing, and coordination among devices, systems, and applications within the manufacturing environment. In fact, once the UNS structure has been conceptualized a tool to build out the hierarchical folder structure is needed. Since the data and information from a UNS are presumed to be accessible by every network participant in a unified way, set up a central hub or gateway that can aggregate data from all the different pockets of information at each level of the enterprise hierarchy. This hub should be able to handle both real-time data and historical data and should be scalable to accommodate future additions to the system. Note: MQTT broker is the most used middleware infrastructure, acting as the central hub for all the data being generated by the devices and systems in your factory. You can choose from various MQTT brokers such as Mosquitto, HiveMQ, or AWS IoT Core. Usually a MQTT network includes at least two nodes: a client and a broker. The latter is an intermediary entity that receives messages published by clients, filters the messages by, and distributes them to subscribers. The data that the node publishes into the UNS becomes consumable by all parts of your organization, while the node also consumes data, from the UNS, that is published by other nodes.
4.1. Once established the central hub, connect the devices and systems to the MQTT broker: Configure each device and system to connect to the MQTT broker and publish data in the common data format. This may involve installing MQTT client libraries on the devices and configuring them to connect to the broker.
4.2. Create topics and subscriptions: Create MQTT/Sparkplug topics that correspond to the data types defined earlier. Each topic should represent a specific type of data, such as “production data” or “maintenance data”. Devices and systems can then publish data on these topics, and other devices and systems can subscribe to these topics to receive the data. - Develop applications and dashboards: Develop applications and dashboards that can access and analyze the data collected from the Unified Namespace. These could include visualizations of production metrics, predictive maintenance tools, or real-time alerts for critical events. Sparkplug provides a set of best practices for accessing the data and enabling interoperability between different applications.
- Test and refine the system: Test the system to ensure it is working as intended, and make adjustments as needed. This may involve tweaking communication protocols, adding new pockets of information, or improving data analysis tools.
By following these steps, you can build a Unified Namespace in manufacturing, which allows all devices and systems in your factory to communicate with each other using a common data format.
Benefits for Industries
This is why UNS is so powerful, by simply plugging into a common system infrastructure: every person working on the plant floor, every piece of hardware and software, including machine learning models, and every high-level decision maker gets instant access to contextualize the most recent enterprise-wide information about the operation of the business. UNS simplifies the use of your digital infrastructure to solve problems as they arise and predict the future state of your enterprise.
Looking at the security aspects mentioned earlier, adopting a Unified Namespace in IIoT can enhance several security aspects, including:
- Authentication and access control, by providing a consistent and standardized naming convention for devices, assets, and resources, enabling more effective control over access to sensitive resources
- Data confidentiality and integrity, that can help protect sensitive data from unauthorized access and tampering; by organizing devices and assets in a hierarchical structure,
- Resource isolation can prevent the spread of malwares throughout the network,
- Threat detection can also allow easier identification of potential security risks and quick response to security incidents, reducing the risk of data loss or system downtime.
Other benefits to the industries can be found among:
- Reduced system and network complexity. Maximum of 2 connections between any two systems.
- Scalable architecture which supports digitalisation. Minimizes cost of future modifications, expansions or integration. Reduces cost of experimentation, proof of concepts, and improvements projects.
- Lower integration costs. Addition of new systems or data points simplified By requiring changes only to a single connection.
- Supports OT/IT convergence. Having a centralized and shared resource enables teams responsible for operational and information technology to work effectively together.
- Removes the need for system knowledge. An object-orientated/contextualized approach allows the creation of digital twins. Enables even people with little or no knowledge of operational technology to be able to navigate and use data from the UNS.
To summarize, the Unified Namespace allows for a consistent and standardized way of organizing and accessing data across different departments and systems. This allows for easier collaboration and information sharing, leading to improved efficiency, reduced downtime, and better decision making.
I-IoT@BIP
xTech is a BIP Group’s CoE with a strong history in strategy definition, service analysis, solution design and governance in the new technology arena. Having a clear vision on the potential of each IT sector is one of our priorities: that is why the Competence Team on Industrial IoT was created to support companies that want to engage in digital innovation.
It will be necessary to assess the new use-cases that I-IoT will enable at the level of smart manufacturing, OT and IT convergence, and end-customer services while keeping in mind corporate objectives, the market, and quickly evolving technology.
We are, as always, at our clients’ sides to assist them take advantage of the potential presented by I-IoT, in part because of our superior expertise in Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, and Big Data, which will progressively converge with IoT technology.
References
[i] Streaming Machine Generated Data via the MQTT Sparkplug B Protocol for Smart Factory Operations. Pavel Koprova et al.
[ii] https://www.hivemq.com/solutions/manufacturing/smart-manufacturing-using-isa95-mqtt-sparkplug-and-uns/
