Performance and load analysis for remote plant connectivity using GSM communication

The trend of SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) is to centralize more regional sites into one Main Control Center (MCC), in order to increase the efficiency. Due to the geographical distribution of the sites locations, the most common communication method with MCC is GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) network. Predicting network performance over a GSM network depends on the type of the transmitted data, the amount of data send, the transmission type (cyclic or event-based) as well as bandwidth and protocol characteristics. This paper presents a real-time comparison of the latency involved in the transmission of different loads of process data from a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) to the MCC, using the OPC (Open Platform Communications) protocol.