Currently, enterprises have to make quick and resilient responses to changing market requirements. In light of this, low-code development platforms provide the technology mechanisms to facilitate and automate the development of software applications to support current enterprise needs and promote digital transformation. Based on a theory-building research methodology through the literature and other information sources review, the main contribution of this paper is the current characterisation of the emerging low-code domain following the foundations of the computer-aided software engineering field. A context analysis, focused on the current status of research related to the low-code development platforms, is performed. Moreover, benchmarking among the existing low-code development platforms addressed to manufacturing industry is analysed to identify the current lacking features. As an illustrative example of the emerging low-code paradigm and respond to the identified uncovered features, the virtual factory open operating system (vf-OS) platform is described as an open multi-sided low-code framework able to manage the overall network of a collaborative manufacturing and logistics environment that enables humans, applications, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices to seamlessly communicate and interoperate in the interconnected environment, promoting resilient digital transformation.

This paper presents an integrated reference model for digital manufacturing platforms, based on cutting edge reference models for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) systems. Digital manufacturing platforms use IIoT systems in combination with other added-value services to support manufacturing processes at different levels (e.g. design, engineering, operations planning, and execution). Digital manufacturing platforms form complex multi-sided ecosystems, involving different stakeholders ranging from supply chain collaborators to Information Technology (IT) providers. This research analyses prominent reference models for IIoT systems to align the definitions they contain and determine to what extent they are complementary and applicable to digital manufacturing platforms. Based on this analysis, the Industrial Internet Integrated Reference Model (I3RM) for digital manufacturing platforms is presented, together with general recommendations that can be applied to the architectural definition of any digital manufacturing platform.

Abstract-This paper proposes the use of Adaptive LDPC AL-FEC codes for content download services over erasure channels. In Adaptive LDPC codes, clients inform the content download server of the losses they are experiencing. Using this information, the server makes FEC parity symbols available to the client at an optimum code rate. This paper presents an analytical model of the proposed Adaptive LDPC codes. The model is validated through measurements realized with an application prototype. Additionally, results show the performance of these codes in different scenarios, compared to the performance of nonadaptive AL-FEC, Optimum LDPC AL-FEC codes and an almost ideal rateless code. Adaptive LDPC AL-FEC codes achieve download times similar to almost ideal rateless codes with less coding complexity, at the expense of an interaction channel between server and clients.

The industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is having a significant impact in the manufacturing industry, especially in the context of horizontal integration of operational systems in factories as part of information systems in supply chains. Manufacturing companies can use this technology to create data streams along the supply chain that monitor and control manufacturing and logistic processes, to in the end make these data streams interoperable with other software systems and to enable smart interactions among supply chain processes. However, the provision of these data streams may expose manufacturing operational systems to cyber-attacks. Therefore, cybersecurity is a critical aspect to design trustworthy gateways, which are system components that implement interoperability mechanisms between operational systems and information systems. Gateways must provide security mechanisms at different system layers to minimize threats. This paper presents the Device Drivers security architecture: trustworthy gateways between operational technology and information technology used in the virtual factory open operating system (vf-OS) platform, which is a multisided platform orientated to manufacturing and logistics companies to enable collaboration among supply chains in all sectors. The main contribution of this paper is the evaluation of fallback mechanisms to improve resilience. In situations when the system may be under attack, the proposed mechanisms provide means to quickly recover component availability, by applying alternative security measures to minimize the threat at the same time. Other significant contributions are: a description of the threat model for Device Drivers, a presentation of the security countermeasures implemented in the vf-OS system, the mapping of the vf-OS response objectives to the different characteristics of a trustworthy system: security, privacy, reliability, safety, and resilience and how the proposed countermeasures complement this response.

Abstract:Purpose: In order to leverage automation control data, Industry 4.0 manufacturing systems require industrial devices to be connected to the network. Potentially, this can increase the risk of cyberattacks, which can compromise connected industrial devices to acquire production data or gain control over the production process. Search engines such as Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network (SHODAN) can be perverted by attackers to acquire network information that can be later used for intrusion. To prevent this, cybersecurity standards propose network architectures divided into several networks segments based on system functionalities. In this architecture, Firewalls limit the exposure of industrial control devices in order to minimize security risks. This paper presents a novel Software Defined Networking (SDN) Firewall that automatically applies this standard architecture without compromising network flexibility.Design/methodology/approach: The proposed SDN Firewall changes filtering rules in order to implement the different network segments according to application level access control policies. The Firewall applies two filtering techniques described in this paper: temporal filtering and spatial filtering, so that only applications in a white list can connect to industrial control devices. Network administrators need only to configure this application-oriented white lists to comply with security standards for ICS. This simplifies to a great extent network management tasks. Authors have developed a prototype implementation based on the OPC UA Standard and conducted security tests in order to test the viability of the proposal.Findings: Network segmentation and segregation are effective counter-measures against network scanning attacks. The proposed SDN Firewall effectively configures a flat network into virtual LAN segments according to security standard guidelines. Research limitations/implications:The prototype implementation still needs to implement several features to exploit the full potential of the proposal. Next steps for development are discussed in a separate section. Practical implications:The proposed SDN Firewall has similar security features to commercially available application Firewalls, but SDN Firewalls offer additional security features. First, SDN technology provides improved performance, since SDN low-level processing functions are much more efficient. Second, with SDN, security functions are rooted in the network instead of being centralized in particular -318-Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management -https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.2534 network elements. Finally, SDN provides a more flexible and dynamic, zero configuration framework for secure manufacturing systems by automating the rollout of security standard-based network architectures.Social implications: SDN Firewalls can facilitate the deployment of secure Industry 4.0 manufacturing systems, since they provide ICS networks with many of the needed security capabilities without compromising flexibility.Originality/va...

De Fez Lava, I.; Fraile Gil, F.; Belda Ortega, R.; Guerri Cebollada, JC. (2012). Performance evaluation of AL-FEC LDPC codes for push content applications in wireless unidirectional environments. Multimedia Tools and Applications. 60(3):669-688. doi:10.1007/s11042-011-0841-y. that depends on the packet loss rate.

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of a Fleet Management System (FMS) that plans and controls the execution of logistics tasks by a set of mobile robots in a real-world hospital environment. The FMS is developed upon an architecture that hosts a routing engine, a task scheduler, an Endorse Broker, a controller and a backend Application Programming Interface (API). The routing engine handles the geo-referenced data and the calculation of routes; the task scheduler implements algorithms to solve the task allocation problem and the trolley loading problem using Integer Linear Programming (ILP) model and a Genetic Algorithm (GA) depending on the problem size. The Endorse Broker provides a messaging system to exchange information with the robotic fleet, while the controller implements the control rules to ensure the execution of the work plan. Finally, the Backend API exposes some FMS to external systems.Design/methodology/approach: The first part of the paper, focuses on the dynamic path planning problem of a set of mobile robots in indoor spaces such as hospitals, laboratories and shopping centres. A review of algorithms developed in the literature, to address dynamic path planning, is carried out; and an analysis of the applications of such algorithms in mobile robots that operate in real in-door spaces is performed. The second part of the paper focuses on the description of the FMS, which consists of five integrated tools to support the multi-robot dynamic path planning and the fleet management.Findings: The literature review, carried out in the context of path planning problem of multiple mobile robots in in-door spaces, has posed great challenges due to the environment characteristics in which robots move. The developed FMS for mobile robots in healthcare environments has resulted on a tool that enables to: (i) interpret of geo-referenced data; (ii) calculate and recalculate dynamic path plans and task execution plans, through the implementation of advanced algorithms that take into account dynamic events; (iii) track the tasks execution; (iv) fleet traffic control; and (v)  to communicate with one another external systems.Practical implications: The proposed FMS has been developed under the scope of ENDORSE project that seeks to develop safe, efficient, and integrated indoor robotic fleets for logistic applications in healthcare and commercial spaces. Moreover, a computational analysis is performed using a virtual hospital floor-plant.Originality/value: This work proposes a novel FMS, which consists of integrated tools to support the mobile multi-robot dynamic path planning in a real-world hospital environment. These tools include: a routing engine that handles the geo-referenced data and the calculation of routes. A task scheduler that includes a mathematical model to solve the path planning problem, when a low number of robots is considered. In order to solve large size problems, a genetic algorithm is also implemented to compute the dynamic path planning with less computational effort. An Endorse broker to exchanges information between the robotic fleet and the FMS in a secure way. A backend API that provides interface to manage the master data of the FMS, to calculate an optimal assignment of a set of tasks to a group of robots to be executed on a specific date and time, and to add a new task to be executed in the current shift. Finally, a controller to ensures that the robots execute the tasks that have been assigned by the task scheduler.