Oil and gas processor goes wireless on the LAN

InTech, Apr 2007 by Al-Saeed, Mohammed, Al-Walaie, Soliman, Al-Subaie, Majed

Proper data protection is a mandatory requirement to ensure PAN communications' security and safety

Oil and gas industry systems and networks may include, but are not limited to, process automation networks (PAN), distributed control systems, remote terminal units, programmable logic controllers, and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition systems.

Industrial wireless technology can apply to several process automation applications including:

* Oil/gas well heads automation

* Cathodic protection monitoring and control

* Energy management

* Vibration monitoring system

* Power monitoring system

* Remote surveillance and alerting solutions

* Micro-seismic sensing application

Industrial wireless solutions must ensure security, interoperability, coexistence, reliable and scalable communication, and quality of service.

While security remains as the major concern in the use of a industrial WLAN, or wireless local area network, it should be robust following a well defined standard and meeting the industrial safety and security regulations including premises protection and detection of rogue nodes like unauthorized access points (APs).

An attractive solution

Industrial wireless technologies standards include 802.11a, b, and g (WiFi), and 802.15.4-based wireless mesh networking, ZigBee, WiMAX, and cellular networks.

Industrial WLAN (Wi-Fi) is one of the current standardized industrial wireless solutions. Currently, there are three dominant WLAN standards in the market. Wi-Fi is an open standard solution, and we can think of it as "wireless Ethernet" since it uses technology similar to the original Ethernet access mechanism "CSMA/CA,"

Many remote facilities, processes, and field operations may utilize industrial WLAN connectivity to access a PAN, which can result in improving productivity, less downtime, faster, more accurate data analysis, and reduced capital and operating expenditures.

Industrial WLAN technology is the most extensive deployment in the industrial environment and has a potential to spread in the future. Due to its flexibility, fast deployment, cost reduction, and simplicity, WLAN technology is an attractive solution to industry.

Another security threat

Securing and protecting industrial systems and process control networks is very critical in today's world.

First of all, these systems are missioncritical and should be up and running round-the-clock.

Moreover, PAN technologies are changing rapidly as well as moving to open standards in terms of protocols and operating systems such as Ethernet (TCP/IP based) and the Microsoft Windows platform.

In addition, recent studies and research reported a significant increase in virus attacks and hacking incidents over the Internet, which are additional threats to industrial and control systems that require an Internet connection.

Therefore, it is important to secure PANs to keep them functioning at all times.

WLAN has several threats related to the data integrity and securing the network against hacking or denial of service attacks. WLAN broadcast data uses radio signals, which makes it vulnerable to unauthorized access.

In other words, anyone with the proper wireless equipment and located within the coverage range can tap in and connect.

In addition, there are more threats, including misconfigured access points, ad hoc wireless networks, and client disassociations that may create rogue access points, honeypot APs, and AP media access control (MAC) spoofing.

The industrial wireless networks are subject to unauthorized client access, denial of service, man in the middle, IP spoofing, and hijacking.

Another security threat to WLAN is the interference from overlapping wireless networks' broadcasting range. For example, environmental or accidental radio frequency (RF) noise and dynamic changes in RF Site characterization could interfere with the industrial WLAN and affect its performance.

Due to these security threats, the need for protecting process control systems is a mandatory requirement.

Securing industrial WLAN

The three key wireless security factors are:

* Authentication: Prior to exchanging any data traffic over the WLAN, the network node (client) identity must be identified and (depending on the authentication method) submit its credentials for validation.

* Encryption: The network node encrypts data before sending, to ensure data confidentiality.

* Data integrity: Preventing any accidental or intentional but unauthorized insertion or modification of data during the transmission.

Robust authentication and access control mechanisms are important to industrial WLAN. Intrusion detection and a prevention mechanism are unique to the WLAN technology. It has the capability to scan and detect rogue APs and ad hoc networks. IEEE 802.11 defines "open system authentication" and "shared key authentication."

Open system authentication does not provide user verification, only identification using the wireless adapter's MAC address. This authentication is for when no authentication is required and it is the default authentication algorithm.