A Network Traffic Visualization System for Industrial Control Systems

Stable network operation is indispensable for stable operation of industrial control systems. However traditional network management systems and visualization systems do not have enough functions for understanding the condition of their networks. Yokogawa has developed a system for visualizing network traffic that helps operators to quickly understand the current network condition. A network traffic visualization system consisting of two major components, a capturing tool and a traffic viewer, was developed to satisfy the requirements. The capturing tool connected to a network switch or a router captures network packets and sends them to the traffic viewer, which visualizes the state of all packets from sources to destinations. The evaluation with an actual industrial control system proved that this system can detect undesirable events such as suspicious communications that may disturb stable operation of industrial control systems.