CONTROLLING COMMUNICATION AMONG MULTIPLE INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS

• US 20120268256A1
• Filed: 04/13/2012
• Published: 10/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Generac Power Systems Incorporated (Generac Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Akiyama, Kazuhito, Kudo, Michiharu, Uramoto, Naohiko, Takahashi, Hitomi
• Granted Patent: US 8,872,638 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/425.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1408 by monitoring network traffic monitoring network traffic per se H04L43/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A communication control method and system for controlling communication among multiple industrial control systems connected via a network. The communication control system includes: a communication relay apparatus for relaying communication between at least two of multiple industrial control systems; a monitoring section for monitoring the multiple industrial control systems; and a control section for switching, if the monitoring section detects an anomaly from at least one of the multiple industrial control systems, communication between an industrial control system detected with an anomaly and a second industrial control system so that the communication is performed via the communication relay apparatus.

Claims

1. A communication control system controlling communication among multiple industrial control systems connected via a network, the communication control system comprising:

a communication relay apparatus for relaying communication between at least two of multiple industrial control systems;

a monitoring section for monitoring said multiple industrial control systems; and

a control section for switching, if said monitoring section detects an anomaly from at least one of said multiple industrial control systems, communication between an industrial control system detected with an anomaly and a second industrial control system so that said communication is performed via said communication relay apparatus.

2. The communication control system according to claim 1, wherein said communication relay apparatus restricts said communication between said industrial control system detected with said anomaly and said second industrial control system.

3. The communication control system according to claim 2, wherein said communication relay apparatus culls out, among all of service requests and data that were given to said industrial control system detected with said anomaly, service requests and/or said data that were issued from said second industrial control system.

4. The communication control system according to claim 2, wherein said control section performs routing of said service requests from said second industrial control system to an alternative industrial control system that accepts said service requests from said multiple industrial control systems.

5. The communication control system according to claim 2, wherein:

said control section further determines an action level of said industrial control system detected with said anomaly by using a result from said monitoring section; and

said communication relay apparatus terminates communication between said industrial control system detected with said anomaly and said second industrial control system according to said action level.

6. The communication control system according to claim 5, wherein said control section shuts down said industrial control system detected with said anomaly according to said action level.

7. The communication control system according to claim 1, further comprising a server apparatus connected to said network and executing a virtual machine,

wherein said control section assigns said virtual machine executed on said server apparatus as said communication relay apparatus, if said anomaly of at least one of said multiple industrial control systems is detected.

8. The communication control system according to claim 1, wherein said control section generates a network zone including said industrial control system detected with said anomaly, wherein said communication relay apparatus is provisioned as a gateway.

9. The communication control system according to claim 1, wherein, if said industrial control system detected with said anomaly returns to a normal state, said control section switches communication between an industrial control system having returned to said normal state and said second industrial control system so that said communication ceases to perform via said communication relay apparatus.

12. An apparatus functioning as said control section in said communication control system according to claim 1.

10. A system comprising:

multiple industrial control systems;

a network connecting said multiple industrial control systems;

a communication relay apparatus relaying communication between at least two of said multiple industrial control systems;

a monitoring section monitoring said multiple industrial control systems; and

a control section switching, if said monitoring section detects anomaly from at least one of said multiple industrial control systems, communication between an industrial control system detected with said anomaly and a second industrial control system so that said communication is performed via said communication relay apparatus.

11. A communication control method for controlling communication among multiple industrial control systems connected via a network, the communication control method comprising the steps of:

monitoring multiple industrial control systems;

relaying communication between at least two of said multiple industrial control systems; and

switching, if an anomaly of at least one of said multiple industrial control systems is detected, communication between an industrial control system detected with said anomaly and a second industrial control system so that said communication is performed via a communication relay apparatus,

wherein at least one of the steps is carried out by using a computer device.

13. A computer readable storage medium tangibly embodying a computer readable program code having computer readable instructions which when implemented, cause a computer to carry out the steps of claim 11.