Critical Requirements for Converged Internet Protocol Network for Hydrocarbon Process Automation Applications

Abstract

Hydrocarbon Process Automation Applications (HPAA) are supported by process automation infrastructure elements, such as instruments, actuators and controllers that are linked by a real-time network. Conventional practice is to dedicate real-time network for each HPAA and not allow other applications from utilizing the same infrastructure to ensure robustness, determinacy and compatibility. This paper addresses the feasibility of supporting non-HPAA traffic with real-time HPAA applications on the same infrastructure in a Local Area Network (LAN). Network simulation will be used to highlight network and application design criteria, traffic mix, and areas of improvements. The outcomes of this effort demonstrates the ability of supporting both non-HPAA with HPPA traffic, given special considerations (i.e., bandwidth, applications, priority, etc.) in a converged Internet Protocol (IP) network with priority based Quality of Service (QoS) setting.