2004 IEEE AUTOTESTCON
DISTRIBUTED SUPERVISORY CONTROL AND DATA
ACQUISITION (SCADA) SOFTWARE: ISSUES AND STATE OF
THE ART
L. Wang and S. Liao
Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
I.f.wang@ieee.org
Abstract -Internet-enabled supervisory
control and data acquisition (SCADA) for
condition monitoring and fault diagnosis have
been widely used in modern industrial
manufacturing, as they are capable of
providing more efficient and reliable decision
making support. More recently, with the
appearance of inexpensive sensors,
microprocessors, and actuators, distributed
and embedded systems are under rapid
development, where real-time constraints
should be carefully considered when
designing such networked safety-critical
systems. In the .paper, various issues in
designing an effective SCADA system for
industrial condition monitoring and fault
diagnostics is discussed in detail, .especially
on its crucial issues and state of the art in the
recent decade.
INTRODUCTION
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA)
system has been widely used in industrial
manufacturing in order to ensure the safe
operations of industrial processes [l, 3, 51. It has
many advantages over the traditional manual
operations, for instance. it can record continuously
a large amount of measurement points (channels)
simultaneously, process the acquired data via
powerful computing capability, and present data to
the people everywhere in a graphical and real-
time form. As a result, clienthewer based SCADA
system was most widely used in the last decade.
Sharing the data among many users is vital for
creating a more efficient work force. Most
industrial SCADA systems nowadays have a
setverlclient architecture, where the system
publishes data that any workstation can monitor
0-7803-8449-0/04/$20.0002004 IEEE
and control what is happening on the factory floor
via network connections. More recently, with the
appearance of inexpensive intelligent sensors and
actuators, as well as microprocessors with
powerful computation ability, distributed and
embedded real-time system appears and it turns
out to be able to more effectively and efficiently
manipulate the acquired information and provide
users with decision making support. For industrial
manufacturing systems especially safety- or time-
critical systems, it is very important to design
reliable and cost-effective software to realize the
real factory automation. It turns out that distributed
and embedded real-time processing is a viable
alternative to currently widely used. clientlserver
distributed information processing. In this paper, a
holistic review of the distributed SCADA software
is conducted and some crucial issues are
discussed in detail.
INTERNET-ENABLED INDUSTRIAL
SCADA SYSTEMS
With the development of modern large industrial
production, the application range of large-scale,
high-speed, high-efficiency rotating machinery
becomes broader than ever. It is now playing an
indispensable role in the entire technical process
of various industrial fields such as petroleum,
chemical industry, electric power, metallurgy, and
so on. However, production upset caused by
machine mechanical breakdown was also not
rare. Past reports on various industry accidents
indicate that proper preventive maintenance for
latent mechanical faults in the key rotating
equipment is very important for secure operations
of the overall industrial production. The machine
running status monitoring and fault diagnosis
technology are effective methods to guarantee the
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safe operations of large rotating machines and
prevent malignant accidents, It can promptly
predict the possible faults for each machine,
diagnose component failures, provide decision-
making support for various operational and
management personnel, as well as avoid the
possible production upset. Therefore, real-time
industrial monitoring of the essential equipment in
industrial processes may bring up huge economic
benefits considering the following advantages:
1. I t can avoid the serious sudden machine
accidents, thus enhance the safe operation of
factory equipment and increase the factory
throughout.
2. Even though the machine breaks down, the
SCADA system can also provide meaningful
data for retrospective analysis by continuously
recording system operations, which may be
useful for discovering the fault cause. The
condition monitoring system can lengthen the
overhaul cycle, reduce the overhaul time, and
improve the overhaul quality.
3. Using SCADA system for industrial monitoring
in daily machine operations, we may conduct
preventive maintenance before any probable
damage takes 'place. The equipment
maintenance policy can also be upgraded
from regular maintenance to preventive
maintenance, if necessary.
At the same time, computer and network
technologies are rapidly developed in recent
years, and they have provided sufficient technical
support for the development of networked SCADA
systems for industrial condition monitoring and
fault diagnosis. It turns out that the computerized
real-time monitoring analysis and automated
technologies can realize the full automation of an
industrial measurement system. The combination
of computer network technology with traditional
condition monitoring systems, the realization of
essential equipment running status monitoring,
and centralized management and analysis, will
enormously enhance the working efficiency of
system operators as well as decision-makers. As
a result, developing such a system with the
aforementioned characteristics for machine
condition monitoring and fault diagnosis has a
positive practical significance in both economy
and technology perspectives.
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STATE OF THE ART
Starting from the beginning of the ~ O ' S ,a la'rge
amount of research has been conducted on
rotating machinery, machine fault characteristics,
vibration signals extraction, and fault diagnosis
signal processing. A series of fault diagnosis
technologies for large rotating machines has been
developed, for instance, the commonly used
spectral analysis method. Starting from the late
703, some fault diagnosis instruments have
gradually entered the stage of practical industrial
applications.
Considering the current situations in industrial
measurement field, we can see that modern
condition monitoring instrumentation systems has
the following two evident development trends:
1. One direction is to carry out routine
maintenance and monitoring for each type of
rotating machinery using miniaturized,
portable, and universalized instruments. This
type of small handheld instruments only allow
workers on the floor to collect the vibration
signal from the machine (generally through
piezoelectric sensors), and perform certain
simple computation judgment using the
general software burned in system. Then,
through the general instrument buses, like
IEEE-488, RS-232, the instrument is
connected to personal computer for further
data processing by fully utilizing the more
powerful computing capability. This type of
instrument development is very rapid.
2. Another direction is to develop continuous,
on-line, real-time condition monitoring and
fault diagnosis systems. The functions of such
systems are more comprehensive as
compared with the handheld instrument based
measurement, but the cost is higher. And it is
generally suitable for the important essential
equipment. Moreover, the multi-processor
technology is also widely used in such
systems. The existing products developed
primarily include the following several
components:
Devices have the powerful capability for
data acquisition and signal preprocessing
using electrical circuits, like operational
amplifier, tracking filter, and so on. This
part of electric circuits must guarantee
that the gathered data can truly reflect the
running status of complex and ever-
 varying machine running at various
operating conditions.
Special-purpose real-time spectrum
analyzers are employed to perform the
real-time spectral analysis for the data
collected from factory floor. For instance,
the widespread application of FFT
analysis technology enables easy and
fast analysis of machine signal
characteristics. Furthermore, more and
more novel algorithms are being invented
for effective signal processing such as
time series analysis.
4 The advantages provided by Internet or
lntranet can be fully exploited by
networked industrial SCADA systems.
The system master computer, which is
the system heart, is responsible for
collecting data transmitted through the
network. The master computer conducts
data analysis and computation using its
software to make the final decision-
making judgment. From the ~ O ' S , many
companies and colleges began
developing monitoring and diagnosis
technologies for rotating machinery. But
the majority of the developed software is
based on DOS platform or earlier 16-bits
Windows platforms, and their functions
are far less than user's ever-changing
requests.
The distributed SCADA system should be capable
of conducting real-time on-line condition
monitoring, centralized system resource
management, and networked data sharing.
Furthermore, the system must have the flexible
configuration capability. It should be capable of
flexibly setting up general local area network
(LAN) and wide area network (WAN) to meet
specific industrial monitoring and diagnosis
requirements, as well as building comprehensive
monitoring network integrating various
functionalities such as data collection, equipment
monitoring, fault diagnosis, resource
management, and decision making. Such a
networked SCADA system should be suitable for
operation and management at different levels
such as person, workshop, branch factory, as well
as corporation. Data transfer among various
workstations and servers is performed directly by
the socket port via the standard TCPW protocol,
which enables the real-time presentation of large
amounts of data. The centralized management of
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historical data and configuration data is realized
through the networked database storage. Different
person is endowed with corresponding privileges
for system access. Operations can be performed
via remote web browsers located at different
places worldwide. These measures significantly
strengthen the system flexibility, availability, 'and
novelty. Basic requirements for such a SCADA
system are listed as follows:
1. It should be able to effectively conduct the
desired monitoring and diagnosis tasks in
order to ensure the machine's normal
operations. By uninterrupted system
monitoring and recording, the database stores
gathered information on machine running
status such as rotational speed, vibration
amplitude and parameters, temperature,
pressure, etc. These data can be used later
for further analysis and diagnosis of the
machine running conditions.
2. It should be able to effectively utilize various
signal processing techniques to analyze the
gathered data and diagnose vibration signals
from different measurement points (channels).
Moreover, appropriate data processing
algorithms need to be incorporated into the
software so as to fully exploit the merits of
network as well as satisfy real-time .
constraints. By so doing, real-time monitoring
and thorough data analysis can be effectively
realized.
3. It should be able to increase the software
versatility by allowing for flexible configuration
of a variety of system parameters. The
principle and main functions of 5CADA
software may keep unchanged for different
applications. However, the details related to
any specific application can be redefined by
modifying the configuration database
according to the different user requirements.
Finally, by combining configuration database
information with the fixed system modules,
system configuration for the specific
application is accomplished and the SCADA
software with desired functionalities is built.
4. Human machine interfaces (HMI's) should be
designed according to the current popular
development trends. User-friendly graphical
user intedaces (GUl's) are always beneficial
to software .quality as they make user
operations more convenient and pleasant. For
instance, using the multimedia provided by
 the modern computer technology, all of the A CASE STUDY: MULTI-TASK
machine running status can be displayed in a COORD INATlON
dynamic form, where all the monitored
parameters are updated in real-time.
In aeneral, the duty of data acauisition workstation
5. It should have comprehensive alarming and
a
in networked SCADA system'is quite heavy, and
it is not easy to coordinate various tasks in a
capability. The 'Oftware system. This subsection mainly discusses the
"pares the gathered (Iata with user-set realization of multi-tasks coordination, which can
parameters and then generates audiovisual be used in the data acquisition workstation, As
alarms as well as exception for
Labview is, widely used for SCADA software
immediate remedial action if the acquired data development in industrial condition monitoring and
levelsexceed preset The fault diagnosis, we here illustrate the parallel
alarming function should be able to provide multi-tasking programming mechanism in
various alarming patterns in order to promptly
Labview.
inform the corresponding technical and
management personnel in the presence of
emergency situations. These flexible alarming Many VIS (Virtual Instruments) are allowed to run
modes include vivid screen indicator, speaker, simultaneously in a LabView execution system.
automatic telephone dialing, beeper, email, For a specific VI, it may also run several parallel
fax, and so on. E-mails can be sent to the cell threads. In normal situations, it is not necessary to
phones of maintenance engineers in the form consider the multitasking issues. But for certain
of SMS messages, informing them of machine time-critical applications, it is highly necessary to
faults in a timely manner, which cuts machine understand how the LabView execution system
downtime. All of these functions can be made works. For instance, in certain conditions, an
available without needing additional application may include many tasks and certain
expensive telemetry investments. tasks need more CPU time or have higher
priorities than others. The multi-thread mechanism
6. It should be able to directly petform condition in Windows platforms can be used to deal with
monitoring and fault diagnosis using timing issues. It is very necessary to know well
commonly used web browsers. Previously, about how to fully use this kind of multi-thread
the special-purpose SCADA software parallel processing mechanism to achieve better
package has to be installed on the industrial system performance using limited system
computer beforehand in order to be able to resources.
conduct the condition monitoring. The
networked system provides the network In the computer with only a single processor, at
server, which allows the user to accomplish any time only one task can be carried out and
the condition monitoring in the global scope other tasks can only be executed through time-
through the network web browser (for sharing mechanism in CPU. In Windows 3.x and
example, IE or Netscape). It avoids the Macintosh operating systems, . tasks are
installation of any special-purpose software. dispatched mainly in a cooperative fashion, viz,
Thus. software maintenance becomes more CPU time assignment for each task is stochastic.
convenient and such systems should be more Only when a task voluntarily gives up the CPU,
economically priced. another task can take it over. Otherwise, other
tasks can only keep on waiting and have no
Using the network technologies, a SCADA system chance to become executed. Under this kind of
is no longer an island of automation and confined operating system environment, the programmer
to stand-alone local or dedicated network. The must be very careful about coordinating these
remote management activity allows operators tasks, or else various tasks cannot work in
anywhere to access a machine's Performance on harmony in a SCADA system.
the factory floor in a real-time fashion. Internet-
enabled SCADA systems also allow for automatic Windows platforms support a type of multitasking
software upgrades and remote maintenance. dispatch mechanism called preemptive
multitasking dispatch. Operating system is
responsible for dispatching a variety of tasks and
each task is assigned a corresponding priority.
Tasks with identical priority can obtain the CPU
time with the equal opportunity. After a task uses
up its CPU time, it becomes suspended in order
that the next ready task in the queue can be
executed. This operation process is also
stochastic.
The basic dispatch unit in Windows platforms is
the thread. Usually every application may be
decomposed into many parallel tasks, for
instance, you .may edit a document on the
computer while simultaneously printing another
document and accessing the network to download
files. In operating systems supporting
multithreaded programming mechanism (e.g,
WindowsSWNT/2WXP), the LabView application
usually uses preemptive multitasking dispatch
strategy. When all of the threads are occupied.
cooperative multitasking dispatch strategy will be
used. For single-threaded operating systems, only
cooperative multitasking dispatch strategy can be
used.
LabView VIS are classified into six priorities, i.e.,
background priority, normal priority, above normal
priority, high priority, time critical priority,
subroutine. Every VI in each priority level may
belong to one of the following six execution
systems: User interface, standard, instrument I/O
data acquisition, other 1, other 2. Except that user
interface execution system has only one thread,
other execution systems all have two threads. If a
specific priority in the execution system has two
VIS running, when the execution (these two VIS
may also be two parallet sub-tasks in a general
task), each VI corresponds to a thread and the
LabView software application uses preemptive
multi-tasking dispatch strategy to dispatch these
two VIS. When an execution system has more
than three parallel VIS, these VIS share the two
threads and the execution system uses both
preemptive and cooperative multitasking dispatch
strategies. It should be noted that: (1) when a
higher priority VI is running, the lower priority VI is
unable to obtain the CPU time; (2) Threads in
different execution systems with identical priority
have an equal opportunity to occupy the CPU.
DISTRIBUTED REAL-TIME SCADA
SYSTEMS
Inexpensive transducers and microprocessors are
now being widely incorporated into the systems
for industrial measurement, monitoring, control,
testing, and manufacturing. It makes the concept
of ubiquitous computing become a reality.
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Especially in the field of distributed and embedded
real-time SCADA system, the effectiveness of
ubiquitous computing is being corroborated by
more and more successful industrial applications.
However, there are still many open issues in this
field.
In an information-rich world, the tighter integration
of various disciplines is the trend for modern
industrial manufacturing [4]. The trend is the
convergence of communication, computing, and
control technologies. For instance, the well-known
C41SR (command, control, communications,
computers, intelligence. and reconnaissance) is a
typical application. The future SCADA system will
involve much more interactions with the physical
environment. Networks of sensor or actuator
nodes with computational capability can form a
distributed industrial monitoring and control
system. Sensor networks and smart house are
two of its representative applications.
The most stringent temporal demands for real-
time software have their origin in the requirements
of control loops [Z]. A control loop primarily
includes sampling, control computation, and
actuation. Firstly, data sampling is performed at
the same sampling instant in every period,
secondly, control computation should start and
finish quickly after the sample is available, and
thirdly, actuation should occur immediately after
the control computation, or at a fixed instant after
the sampling. In control theory, these three
actions are normally assumed to be
instantaneous. However, this is impossible in
real-world applications, in which computations
must satisfy stringent timing constraints,
considering that the computations take time and
may have to contend with other computations for
processing and other system resources. This is
even more obvious in the case where several
tasks are trying to access the system resources
simultaneously. The tasks will compete with each
other since they are sharing system resources
such as CPU time, communication bandwidth,
analogldigital converters, etc. Failure to meet the
specified deadlines in such real-time applications
can lead to intolerable system performance
degradation or even catastrophic accidents.
However, such timing issues were not given
sufficient attention in most current SCADA system
design. Consequently, timing errors where
computations miss their deadlines occur
inevitably. Control and scheduling co-design may
provide a unified approach and more integrated
algorithms to the time-critical SCADA system
design. Normally such systems need to implement
the seamless integration of real-time monitoring,
scheduling, communication, and control. ’
As mentioned earlier, the most important issue in
distributed real-time SCADA systems is
concerned with system resource management.
Reasonable assignment of limited system
resources for various tasks is very important for
the successful design of a time-critical system.
For instance, CPU time, microprocessor memory,
and communication bandwidth are all limited in a
distributed and embedded real-time SCADA
system, therefore, it is crucial to make a tradeoff
among various conflicting requirements and
obtain the optimal or -near-optimal resource
allocation solution. The task is not so easy to
implement considering the distributed SCADA
system is normally highly dynamic and nonlinear.
It is impossible to predict precisely what will
happen in the next step during system operations.
Therefore, the designed system should be able to
effectively adjust its behavior with the production
condition in an adaptive manner.
Another important issue in the real-time SCADA
system is its robustness to unpredictable
component faults. In the adversarial industrial
manufacturing environments, the component
malfunctions during system operations are
unavoidable. Especially for computationally
expensive real-time systems, failures of sensors,
microprocessors, and actuators are inevitable
under the heavy duty. Therefore, it is highly
necessary to design fault-tolerant SCADA
systems, which are capabte of self-repairing and
self-recovering from the fault condition without
much performance loss. For example, actuators
may become jammed during system operations
for certain industrial applications, the SCADA
system should be able to make full use of the
remaining actuators to stili accomplish the desired
task with acceptable system performance.
Different component failure compensation
schemes can be incorporated into the SCADA
system to achieve a more robust industrial system
in the presence of unforeseen component failures.
CONCLUDfNG REMARKS
Industrial SCADA system is made up of a variety of
independently functioning but interacting modules.
Advances in Internet technology has offered users
the ability to take fuil advantages of increased
remote supervisory control and data gathering.
The fnternet-enabled SCADA system also opens
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a new window of opportunity to increase
productivity and management effectiveness.
Moreover, the recently developed distributed and
embedded real-time SCADA system has also
brought up more effective condition monitoring
and control for industrial processes by employing
networks of MEMS-based transducers. The wider
use of distributed supervisory control and data
acquisition across a factory floor turns out to be
able to enhance the productivity and profitability.
Future trends in this field include improving the
SCADA system reliability/availability,
responsiveness, scalability, expandabiiity,
flexibility, interoperability. and SO on.
Acknowledgment: The authors would like to
thank Mr. S . Gong, for his beneficial discussion
and important contribution to this work.
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