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SCADA Systems
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. SCADA Systems

Written By:

2.

Elements of SCADA Contd.

3.

Monolithic SCADA

4.

Distributed SCADA

5.

Networked SCADA

6.

Protocols & Layers

7.

Corporate and SCADA

Anshul T hakur

The task of supervision of machinery and industrial processes on a routine basis can be an
excruciatingly tiresome job. Always being by the side a machine or being on a 24x7 patrol duty
around the assembly line equipment checking the temperature levels, water levels, oil level and
performing other checks would be considered a wastage of the expertise of the technician on
trivial tasks. But, to get rid of this burdensome task, the engineers devised equipments and
sensors (http://www.engineersgarage.com/articles/sensors) that would prevent or at least
reduce the frequency of these routine checks. As a result of that, control systems and its various
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off springs like SCADA systems were formed. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
(SCADA) offers the ease of monitoring of sensors placed at distances, from one central location.

History
Supervisory control first evolved
in electric utility systems when
a

need

to

substation

operate

remote

equipment

without

sending in personnel or line crew


at the remote site was felt. In
1940s, a pair of wires for every
unique

equipment

was

used

between sites. The potential of


multiplexing on one pair of lines
was soon put to use taking ideas from the Magnetic Stepping Switch developed by telephone
companies in the 30s. Security being an issue, a select-check-operate procedure was adopted
where the operator waited for acknowledgement from device before finally operating it. Taking
further cues from the telephone relay systems and its coding schemes, Westinghouse and North
Electric Company developed the Visicode supervisory control.

General Electric and Control Corporation too developed their own independent supervisory control
programs. These were used in pipelines, gas companies and even airports for runway landing
lights. These systems became popular during 1950 and 1965. By that time, i.e. in 1960s
Telemetry was developed for monitoring purposes. Before 1970s equipment was generally hard
wired as solid state devices were in birth and infancy stages. But with the advent of low cost
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"What is SCADA System" | Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition - EngineersGarage

computer technology, software and computers enabled the performing of the functions previously
done by technicians and operators sitting besides panel instruments and tone telemetry.

The first push was given by the 8 and 16 bit computers called minicomputers. The second was
the microprocessors, several years later. Computers offered flexibility in programming and
communicating with field data acquisition units that was previously being done by hard wired
equipments. This was the dawn of SCADA. Many organizations have been involved with the
standardization of SCADA systems since then, including the IEEE, American National Standards
Institute, Electric Power Research Institute, International Electrotechnical Commission, DNP3
Users group etc.

Elements of SCADA Systems


SCADA monitors, controls and alarms the plant and/or regional facilities operating systems from
a centralized location. It includes the communication of information between a SCADA central
host computer, many scattered units and/or Programmable Logic Controllers. For example, in a
water filtration plant, the remote units measure the pressure in pipes and report the readings to
the central computer located somewhere in the control tower. In case of any anomaly, the
SCADA system would alert the main station of the problem apprising it of other details like the
severity of the anomaly and measurement values in an organized fashion. The systems may vary
from simple, like temperature reporting in a building to complex like monitoring the traffic on many
traffic lights. The system consists of the following elements:

1.

SCADA Master Station Computer Systems: It is the repository of the real-time or near

real-time reported data collected from the remote terminal units connected to it. It is generally
standard computer hardware equipment and very few SCADA system suppliers have ventured out
to make their own computer equipment. A few companies like IBM and CDC did try making
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hardware for it, but the effort was short lived and commercial off-the-shelf computer products
continue to be the main stay. The back end SCADA software must be able to repeatedly poll the
RTUs for data values, should have software for their retrieval, storage and processing. The
processing may include unit conversion, cataloguing into tables etc.

2.

Human-Machine Interface: This is the eye candy part on the host station. The values that

have been stored in the host

computers

are presented to the human operator in an

understandable and comprehensible form using HMIs. These may provide trending, diagnostic or
management information and detailed schematics and animations representing the current states
of the machines under its control. Pictorial representation being more understandable to humans
is the preferred form in SCADA HMIs.

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Comments
i can never see such type
Submit t ed by kart hick on Sat , 14/04/2012 - 10:39
i can never see such t ype informat ion in any ot her w ebsides...

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every topic is described in


Submit t ed by Neha Get he on Fri, 01/06/2012 - 10:53
every t opic is described in brief and simple w ay....brilliant w ebsit es....especially for engg like me.....
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2 gud website....especially 4
Submit t ed by Neha Get he on Fri, 01/06/2012 - 10:58
2 gud w ebsit e....especially 4 engg like us...
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nicely mentioned the details


Submit t ed by umar farrok on Mon, 11/02/2013 - 19:20
nicely ment ioned t he det ails about scada .
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The explanation is wonderful.


Submit t ed by achmad hermansyah on Wed, 16/07/2014 - 22:07
T he explanat ion is w onderful.
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a
Submit t ed by paw an on Wed, 18/03/2015 - 14:54
a
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