Plant communications is nowadays based largely on IP networks, although as a conservative & safety conscious industry, these IP networks are almost exclusively private.

Our service personnel are sometimes asked to visit plant to diagnose problems. The visit can entail a time consuming journey only to discover a very simple problem which is diagnosed in minutes through the access available through the normal plant IP network. The ability to access this remotely would offer benefits to both Eurotherm and the customer alike.

However, opening up an IP network that potentially contains both safety critical and commercially sensitive data is normally considered too dangerous. This project would be to investigate ways of opening up these networks to Eurotherm personnel, without risking opening them up to any unwanted third parties. Ideally the result would be an implementation to provide a proof of concept.