CPS-TR: An Online Training Platform to Address Fourth Industrial Revolution Workforce Needs

The widespread deployment of ‘Smart’ Infrastructure, which uses networked computing systems to manage physical processes, has brought the onset of the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). The 4IR relies on network interconnectivity, sensing, automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence to improve the productivity of modern manufacturing environments while reducing their workforce needs. Although beneficial, this growing adoption of 4IR has increased the complexity of Industrial Control Systems (ICS), creating a huge workforce skills gap and causing 2.1 million manufacturing jobs to go unfulfilled by 2030. In the context of these challenges, this paper presents Cyber-Physical Systems Training Range (CPS-TR), a cloud-based scalable student training platform to address 4IR needs, especially cybersecurity. The CPS-TR, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), allows instructors to create experimental scenarios using virtual machines in AWS’ Elastic Cloud (EC2), connected via AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) based subnet providing an isolated communication environment. The CPSTR front-end provides a web application-based interface for students and instructors to design new material and perform experiments. This paper evaluates the performance and efficiency of the CPS-TR environment while showcasing an experiment teaching trainees about the safe use of the MQTT protocol from 4IR infrastructure software updates. The experimental evaluation shows that a trainee’s network traffic volume while using the CPS-TR peaks at 2000 packets in a second; the network bandwidth requirements of a basic network connection suited for usage with mobile and tablet devices. The experimental evaluation also shows the VPC subnet communication peaks at eight packets in a second, with a cumulative packet count of fewer than 70 packets. This low VPC subnet utilization is in combination with EC2 T2.Micro VMs allows the CPS-TR operation costs to stay low.