OverView
The proliferation of wireless Cyberphysical Networked Control Systems (CPNCS) in applications as diverse as automotive systems to mining industry and public utilities like power grids, necessitates for a detailed study on the control system models devised for the wireless arena. Moreover, the migration of transmission media from physical wires to air, introduces various bounds due to inception of undesireable phenomena like noise, congestion, packet loss, communication delay, may affect the control performance and in the worst case, the possibility of a attack which is far more pronounced than in a wired control system. It is therefore imperative to test the plant-control models and their behavioural reposnses on a testbed that may reproduce the behaviour of an actual control system to the closest possible rather than relying on simulations alone.
It is to this effect that the CPNCS testbed is being developed. The figure presents the macro view of the testbed. This testbed, in conjunction with its analysis tool can be used to ascertain bounds on control performance of a given controller over a given network, by artifically inducing random or fixed failure rates, packet drops and external noise either in network or the physical plant.
