A Horizontal Taxonomy for the Industrial IoT
architecture. That makes the task easier, but still non-trivial. The only way to do it is through
experience. We are early on our quest. However, significant progress is within our collective
grasp.
This paper draws on extensive experience with nearly 1000 real-world IIoT applications. Our
conclusion is that an IIoT taxonomy is not only possible, but critical to both individual system
building and the inception of a true cross-industry Industrial Internet of Things.
While the classification of IIoT systems is very early, we do suggests a few early divisions. To be
as crisp as possible, we also chose numeric “metrics” for each division. The lines, of course, are
not that stark. And, those lines evolve with technology over time at a much faster pace than
biological evolution. Nonetheless, the numbers are critical to force clarity; without numerical
metrics, meaning is often too fuzzy.
3.1
Reliability
Metric: Continuous availability must exceed “99.999%” to avoid severe consequences
Architectural Impact: Redundancy
Many systems describe their requirements as “highly reliable” or “mission critical” or “minimal
downtime”. However, those labels are often more platitudes than actionable system
requirements. To be meaningful, we must be more specific about the reasons we must achieve
that reliability. That requires understanding of how quickly a failure causes problems and how
bad those problems are.
IIC Journal of Innovation
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