Interoperability between Domains - Bridging Industrial Control Systems and Geographic Information Systems

Abstract

This paper presents the conceptual design and the related implementation of a bidirectional domain inter-connection bridging Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and Geographic Information (GI) systems. Due to the numerous common interests and the fact that both realms, SCADA and GIS, have their own central information, namely time-based sensor data and geographical position, a connection between these domains is a benefit for both of them. Therefore, the authors designed and implemented a bidirectional software connector by the use of implementations of the two standards OPC UA and OCG SOS. The presently linked information from a SCADA system can be utilized and further augmented by a GIS, which can then readdress its outcomes to the former and vice versa. The proposed adapter and its components have been validated in a real-world scenario. The data from three different experimental buildings were visualized and exchanged between a SCADA/HMI-System and a GIS using the developed software prototype.