A method and an access unit for accessing an industrial communication network are provided. An access unit has first ports connected to the communication network and at least one second port. The access unit is configured to pass data traffic between nodes of the communication network through the access unit in a first operational state of the access unit. The access unit is configured to pass data traffic to a test node via the at least one second port and/or allow test data to be injected into the communication network via the at least one second port in a second operational state of the access unit.

A system and method of managing a network that includes assets are described. The method includes modeling the network as a directed graph with each of the assets represented as a node and determining alternative paths to each node from each available corresponding source of the node. The method also includes computing upstream robustness of each node, computing upstream robustness of the network, and computing downstream criticality of each node. Managing the network and each asset of the network is based on the upstream robustness and the downstream criticality of each node.

Techniques described herein register an endpoint device, such as a utility meter, with multiple headend systems. A system described herein includes a utility meter, which measures consumption of a resource, and a Network Management System (NMS) headend system, which manages a network. The utility meter joins the network and obtains an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the NMS headend system. The utility meter transmits a network registration request to the NMS headend system using the IP address of the NMS headend system and receives, from the NMS headend system, network-related settings of the network. The utility meter obtains an IP address of a second headend system configured to provide a service over the network. Further, the utility meter receives, from the second headend system, configuration settings for using the service of the second headend system and, as such, configures the radio with the network-related settings and the configuration settings.

Embodiments include a power distribution access network comprising power sourcing equipment (PSE) having a hybrid power-data port and at least one remote distribution node coupled to the PSE. The PSE delivers power at a first voltage to the distribution node and the distribution node delivers power at a second voltage to a remote device. Delivery of power to the distribution nodes may be based on information from the distribution node. Other embodiments include a power distribution access network with remote distribution nodes daisy-chained together by hybrid power-data cables so that a power line and a plurality of optical lines pass along the distribution nodes. The optical lines sequentially drop off along the chain and a remainder of the optical lines is indexed at each distribution node. Remote powered devices are coupled to the distribution nodes. Each remote powered device receives power and optical signals from the respective remote distribution node.

A method is described that determines that a replacement node device has been connected to a mesh network, the replacement node device corresponding to an original node that has been removed from the mesh network. In response to determining that the replacement node device has been connected to the mesh network, network topology data is accessed that specifies one or more data routing configurations that are each associated with a node device included in the mesh network. From among the one or more data routing configurations specified by the network topology data, a particular data routing configuration is identified that is associated with the original node device that has been removed from the mesh network. Data that specifies the particular data routing configuration that is associated with the original node device that has been removed from the mesh network is provided to the replacement node device.

According to some embodiments, a system, method and non-transitory computer-readable medium are provided to protect a cyber-physical system having a plurality of monitoring nodes comprising: a normal space data source storing, for each of the plurality of monitoring nodes, a series of normal monitoring node values over time that represent normal operation of the cyber-physical system; a situational awareness module including an abnormal data generation platform, wherein the abnormal data generation platform is operative to generate abnormal data to represent abnormal operation of the cyber-physical system using values in the normal space data source and a generative model; a memory for storing program instructions; and a situational awareness processor, coupled to the memory, and in communication with the situational awareness module and operative to execute the program instructions to: receive a data signal, wherein the received data signal is an aggregation of data signals received from one or more of the plurality of monitoring nodes, wherein the data signal includes at least one real-time stream of data source signal values that represent a current operation of the cyber-physical system; determine, via a trained classifier, whether the received data signal is a normal signal or an abnormal signal, wherein the trained classifier is trained with the generated abnormal data and normal data; localize an origin of an anomaly when it is determined the received data signal is the abnormal signal; receive the determination and localization at a resilient estimator module; execute the resilient estimator module to generate a state estimation for the cyber-physical system. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Systems and methods for managing distributed computing resources including blockchain-based management of serverless computing and edge computing. Distributed computing resources are managed on a peer-to-peer network, and serverless functions are hosted on a distributed IT infrastructure. Developers for the serverless functions and providers of distributed IT infrastructure utilize a blockchain-based IT marketplace platform to make transactions relating to computing resource consumption.

A method for remote monitoring includes (1) generating first sensor data from a first sensor at a first network node of a communications network and (2) sending the first sensor data from the first sensor to a second network node that is remote from the first network node, via the communications network. The first network node is powered from an electrical power grid that is separate from the communications network. The first sensor data may be raw sensor data and/or lossless sensor data.

A computer implemented method and apparatus for reporting power down events in mesh nodes without a backup energy storage device. The method comprises reporting power down events in mesh nodes without a backup energy storage device comprising: listening, by a powered node in a network, for a heartbeat of a neighboring node, wherein the neighboring node does not have a backup energy storage device; pinging the neighboring node when a heartbeat is not heard within a predefined time period; and sending, by the powered node, a message toward a head end server indicating a power down event of the neighboring node.

There are provided methods for associating an adapter controller with a device, among a plurality of devices, for instance a Power over Ethernet device or its controller, each device of the plurality being connected to a controller interconnected to other controllers by a power-over-data linear bus to which an item of power source equipment is also connected. The methods comprises an exchange of a pairing message comprising a unique identifier of the device to be paired with, wherein only said device from which is the pairing message receives power at the time of receiving the pairing message by the controller among the plurality of devices.