Security concepts for flexible wireless automation in real-time environments

Wireless technologies in industrial automation increase flexibility, but pose challenges to the design of security strategies. The typical requirements regarding integrity protection, authentication, and availability need to be transferred from the traditional wired network domain to wireless networks without impairing the benefits of wireless communication. This article presents results of the security concept for flexible wireless automation in real-time environments devised in the flex WARE project. It includes the results of the security requirement analysis, a description of the procedural design approach towards security, and describes innovative communication protection mechanisms for wireless domains including seamless handover and novel location-based security services.