Summary

The accelerated technological development in the field of computing and communication, pushes the manufacturers of industrial control equipment to invest enormous efforts in the development of advanced communication and security capabilities embedded in the hardware of controllers. This is possible due to the processing, memory and communication capabilities which have improved significantly in recent years. The existing process controllers are used as a full "communication and control center" that mediates between the SCADA layer in the factory and ends with the control of the end equipment without the need for special switching equipment. However, the conflict between the need to implement an advanced control environment that relies on high-speed communications infrastructure and advanced controllers, and the need to keep the production environment as isolated from vulnerabilities as possible is a key consideration in designing industrial control systems in the new era. To this end, the controller manufacturers have implemented communication layers with advanced capabilities that are understood as part of the controllers without the need for external components, so that the controller continuously manages the communication with it and at the same time serves as an intermediary between the computer systems and control components. Beyond that, reliance on the factory ETHERNET infrastructure has led to the development of controllers whose communication infrastructure (BACKBONE) is Ethernet-based at high speeds. This helps in a very fast I \ O sampling, at the same time the controller development environments are now more secure and the communication equipment unique to this world communicates and is managed through a unified platform in the control equipment environment. The separation that existed between the severity of control and industrial communication in the separate control, monitoring and control capabilities, disappears and gives central place to advanced development environments in which control and communication are managed together. However, this work environment sometimes shares the same communication infrastructure as the office environment, which poses many challenges for communications financiers, information security and even control and production engineers. The good news is that the use of equipment that has been tested and recognized according to international security standards, in parallel with the implementation of basic network separation and management rules in the field of communications and industrial control, can significantly improve the reliability, survivability, function and security of the control system. Conversion of an existing control system, with an emphasis on the implementation of an architecture that includes control, communication and security features (even basic in the initial stage). And the selection of control equipment and industrial communications that include advanced security features, are the key to a more stable, reliable, and secure control system.