To fulfill the feature demands SCADA systems,
Hughes introduced a satellite based terminal also
called “Hughes 9201-M2M satellite IP terminal”, it
is just as full designed operation box which is
compatible with internet protocol (IP) and the
configuration is more automated to control the
SCADA systems required operations over the global
area (or over wide network). Hughes 9201 is a more
advance and reliable solution which connect the
remote stations of industrial infrastructures such as
oil, gas and water, may located at distance place,
with wide data range that may will be in kb, mb, and
gb. This work is not limit to the remote
connectivity, and data collection from, but also able
to transmit operational commands and instructions
during critical cases [1]. Figure 1 shows the IP
communication network by employing of Hughes
9201.
Usually, satellite system (or satellite dish, VSAT) is
able to transmits lager volume of data carried from
the Earth networked stations, the Earth stations are
Fig. 1 IP communication network [1]
A Way to Access SCADA System via Satellite
Channel and its relevant Security Trends
1Aamir Shahzad, 2Hongseok Chae, 3Malrey Lee, 4Hyangran Lee, 5Gisung Jeong
1,2,3,4 561-756, Center for Advanced Image and Information Technology, School of Electronics
& Information Engineering, Chon Buk National University, 664-14, 1Ga, Deokjin-Dong,
Jeonju, Chon Buk, Korea.
5Department of Fire Service Administration, WonKwang University, Republic of Korea
1mail2aamirshahzad@gmail.com, 2chaehs7288@gmail.com, 3mrlee@jbnu.ac.kr,
4orange1469@naver.com, 5jgskor@wku.ac.kr
Abstract: - SCADA systems have been playing
important roles for industrial automation and
processing, as the results the productions can be
produced in minimal time with more efficiency and
profitability. Mainly, the whole industrial production
is carried through various connected sensors or field
devices, which may configured in local area network
(LAN)/Wide area network (WAN). In previous two
decades, wireless based communication gained
popularity and the SCADA industries (such as oil, gas
and water) also accepted and deployed their
production through the use of wireless media. To be
more advanced, the SCADA systems are also
required to access the remote networked devices that
may located at various places in the World over
wireless links, thus the best solution is satellite
communication. Satellite transmission will provide an
easy, faster and efficient access to, monitor and
control the geographical networked remote devices
from the central location or central station, which
also a main goal of this study. This study proposes a
satellite based communication facility for SCADA
water station, moreover security issues that mainly
linked with satellite transmission are also considered
and relevant protection mechanisms are suggested.
Key-Words: - Supervisory control and data
acquisition, Machine-2-machine, Satellite network,
internet protocol.
I. INTRODUCTION
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ISSN: 2769-2477
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used to carried the SCADA systems or its
configured device operational or other information
through employed of Ethernet technology which
accessible to the internet. The satellite terminal can
transmits large volume of data which may not effect
by the atmosphere in cases of wind, rain and snow,
or other disasters [2].
In research [3], mobile terminal was used as to
carries the real time information of SCADA system.
A system was proposed and designed in-which
crane machine is operated remotely via cellular
phone. The crane machine is located at distance
placed for the cellular phone and information is
carried through the web server which is situated
intermediate between the mobile node and crane
system. Despite from SMS technology to access the
SCADA remote information [4, 5], the remote
operations of crane system are monitored via mobile
access application interface, the carried information
can be analyzed in form of graphics, and control
commands are send in response of monitoring status
(or critical status) [3, 6].
In research [7], a conceptual model is designed that
connects the several remote (networked) stations or
sea ports with the main station that is located
somewhere in capital city (i.e., Kuala Lumpur).
Each station deployed a private cloud station and
information is transmitted to the main station which
is designated for monitoring and controlling
purposes. The authorized end-users can access the
information by connection with the main station [7,
8].
Like other systems, SCADA systems are also
suffering from internet attacks and vulnerabilities, in
the case of attacks the critical information of
SCADA system cannot be deliver to/from the
networked nodes [9, 10]. As the SCADA system
and field devices are usually located at various
locations and the information carried through the
media such as w ire or wireless over internet. The
transmission over internet causes the vulnerabilities
and accounted as major issues, for SCADA system
[8, 11]. Moreover, the SCADA mostly used
protocols, and for communication over internet the
SCADA packets are encapsulated into Transmission
Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol
(UDP) packet that provides a co mmunication way
for the SCADA packets over internet [9, 11].For
security purposes, the SCADA systems have been
used various vendor or non-vendor based security
mechanisms to protect it communication while
travelling over the unsecure media or internet.
Moreover, the security solutions such as firewalls,
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), intrusions detection and
prevention mechanisms, secure sockets layer (SSL)/
transport layer security (TSL), internet protocol
security (IPSec), and more important authentication
and encryption mechanism are also deployed against
potential attacks[ 11,12]. However, the security
mechanism selection and its deployment during
SCADA satellite transmission will be considered as
future works.
Fig. 2 Simulation Work [12]
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In figure 2, a simulation environment is created in-
which the SCADA main controller accesses the
information of networked remote field station or
water station via satellite system. In remote station,
water is processed with two operations such as
heating and cooling. During each operation, water is
carried from the main storage via pumping motor,
and distributed to each local storage where the
heater and cooler devices are used, desired operation
are performed and then water will store in the hot
water storage or/and cool water storage. Figure 3
shows the simulation based transmission flows
which performed from remote station to toward
main controller via satellite medium.
As passage of time, the industrial demands for
communication have been also increased; therefore
the wireless based communication solutions are
considered as the best, efficient, and most reliable
ways that connected the remote located field
devices. The satellite communication is also a way
which transmits the information between the nodes
that may connect over the various remote locations
over the World. The current study uses a way that
transmits SCADA information from/to the main
station and remote located devices through satellite
channels. As consequence, the SCADA information
is delivered to/from the remote located devices that
are networked at distance placed. In addition, the
security issues have also highlighted that are usually
resided in SCADA systems or/and SCADA
communication over the satellite channels. In future
work, a reliable and efficient security solution will
be considered that will provide protection against
the vulnerabilities.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work (Grants No: 1401001175) was supported
by Business for Academic-industrial Cooperative
establishments funded Korea Small and Medium
Business Administration in 2015.
[1] Hughes, "www.hughes.com/.../hughes-9201-
m2m-satellite-ip-terminal/download".
[2] Goble Satellite communications,
"http://www.groundcontrol.com/Satellite_Scada
_ Telemetry.html".
[3] Ozdemir, Engin, and Mevlut Karacor, "Mobile
phone based SCADA for industrial
automation.", ISA transactions, Vol.45, No.1,
2006, pp. 67-75.
[4] Kirubashankar, R., K. Krishnamurthy, J. Indra
and B. Vignesh, "Design and implementation of
web based remote supervisory control and
information system.", International Journal of
Soft Computing and Engineering, Vol.1, No.4,
2011, pp. 43-51.
[5] Bradley. A. "Flexible Solutions for Your
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisitions
Needs(SCADA System Selection Guide)."
Rockwell International Company, 2015.
[6] Ionel, Raul, Gabriel Vasiu and Septimiu
Mischie, "GPRS based data acquisition and
analysis system with mobile phone
control.", Measurement, Vol.45, No.6, 2012,
pp. 1462-1470.
[7] A. Shahzad, S. Musa and A. Aborujilah,
"Conceptual Model of Real Time Infrastructure
Within Cloud Computing Environment.",
Fig. 3 Transmission Flows
II. PROPOSED IMPLEMENTATION
AND DISCUSSION
III. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE
WORK
REFERENCES
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International Journal of Computer Networks,
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[8] S. East, J. Butts, M. Papa and S. Shenoi, "A
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[9] A.Shahzad and Malrey Lee, "Real Time
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[10] Hyung Jun Kim, “Security and Vulnerability of
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[11] Musa, Shahzad. A and Aborujilah, “Secure
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[12] Malrey Lee; “The protocol design and New
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