NETSCOUT Case Studies Assuring Energy Transportation Network Services With NETSCOUT

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	Assuring Energy Transportation Network Services With NETSCOUT NETSCOUT

Assuring Energy Transportation Network Services With NETSCOUT

NETSCOUT

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Automation & Control - Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA) Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software
Applicable Industries	Oil & Gas
Applicable Functions	Logistics & Transportation Maintenance
Use Cases	Predictive Maintenance Process Control & Optimization Remote Asset Management
Services	System Integration Testing & Certification
Challenge	The company had enhanced operations efficiencies through numerous ongoing digital technology initiatives. In one such project, the company’s operations team improved the performance of their controller environment by using the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to identify operational changes (e.g., pressure drops) to alert whether there was a possible transport network leak. The company also used the SCADA system to monitor sump levels, vapor concentrations, pump-seal failures, and equipment vibration leaks. In the context of the company’s IT Operations, SCADA was monitored along the network peripheral, with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) remotely installed across the delivery network communicating operational status to the SCADA database. Over time, NetOps monitoring of company’s SCADA environment showed they were experiencing electrical brownouts (e.g., power blips) on their wide area network (WAN) satellite links. As these brownouts occurred, the PLCs would initiate health check requests every 10 seconds. While the satellite links did not go down during this time, the SCADA system stopped running on the affected WAN links, which placed controller environment operations at risk. For every five-minute interval, an estimated 600 network transport transactions would be impacted when SCADA was not operating. Read More
About Customer	This company is a leading transporter of natural gas and oil. Recent innovations have enabled the company to enjoy an expanded presence in the renewable energy generation business segment. For years, the company’s Network Operations (NetOps) team had looked to NETSCOUT as a trusted business partner that delivered service assurance and visibility solutions across the business, with past projects assisting efforts to migrate applications to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms. The company had enhanced operations efficiencies through numerous ongoing digital technology initiatives. In one such project, the company’s operations team improved the performance of their controller environment by using the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to identify operational changes (e.g., pressure drops) to alert whether there was a possible transport network leak. The company also used the SCADA system to monitor sump levels, vapor concentrations, pump-seal failures, and equipment vibration leaks. Read More
Solution	In successfully troubleshooting and resolving this issue, NetOps collaborated with their long-contracted NETSCOUT Premium Support Services (PSS) Engineer to take advantage of the end-to-end visualization across their SCADA environment provided by their already-in-production: nGeniusONE Service Assurance analytics, InfiniStreamNG (ISNG) smart visibility appliances, nGeniusPULSE with nPoint sensors. The PSS Engineer and NetOps team collaborated to devise a troubleshooting workflow using the following NETSCOUT service elements: nGeniusPULSE with nPoints were used to generate synthetic testing to assess the performance of the Modbus data communications protocol used by the PLCs remotely installed across the delivery network. Since the PLCs were initiating health check requests every 10 seconds, the PSS Engineer concurred that could be an indication of issues occurring on the line. Through nGeniusPULSE synthetic testing, it was determined that monitoring transactions and TCP Retransmissions provided the most reliable indicator of issues. An nGeniusONE alert profile was configured to send email updates on the potential indicators of issues occurring between the PLCs and SCADA servers. With those alerts integrated into a customized nGeniusONE Service Dashboard view, NetOps was provided with a real-time snapshot into the health of the Modbus data communications protocol traffic. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Automation & Control - Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA)

Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software

Applicable Industries

Oil & Gas

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation

Maintenance

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance

Process Control & Optimization

Remote Asset Management

Services

System Integration

Testing & Certification

Challenge

The company had enhanced operations efficiencies through numerous ongoing digital technology initiatives. In one such project, the company’s operations team improved the performance of their controller environment by using the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to identify operational changes (e.g., pressure drops) to alert whether there was a possible transport network leak. The company also used the SCADA system to monitor sump levels, vapor concentrations, pump-seal failures, and equipment vibration leaks. In the context of the company’s IT Operations, SCADA was monitored along the network peripheral, with Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) remotely installed across the delivery network communicating operational status to the SCADA database. Over time, NetOps monitoring of company’s SCADA environment showed they were experiencing electrical brownouts (e.g., power blips) on their wide area network (WAN) satellite links. As these brownouts occurred, the PLCs would initiate health check requests every 10 seconds. While the satellite links did not go down during this time, the SCADA system stopped running on the affected WAN links, which placed controller environment operations at risk. For every five-minute interval, an estimated 600 network transport transactions would be impacted when SCADA was not operating.

About Customer

This company is a leading transporter of natural gas and oil. Recent innovations have enabled the company to enjoy an expanded presence in the renewable energy generation business segment. For years, the company’s Network Operations (NetOps) team had looked to NETSCOUT as a trusted business partner that delivered service assurance and visibility solutions across the business, with past projects assisting efforts to migrate applications to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms. The company had enhanced operations efficiencies through numerous ongoing digital technology initiatives. In one such project, the company’s operations team improved the performance of their controller environment by using the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to identify operational changes (e.g., pressure drops) to alert whether there was a possible transport network leak. The company also used the SCADA system to monitor sump levels, vapor concentrations, pump-seal failures, and equipment vibration leaks.

Solution

In successfully troubleshooting and resolving this issue, NetOps collaborated with their long-contracted NETSCOUT Premium Support Services (PSS) Engineer to take advantage of the end-to-end visualization across their SCADA environment provided by their already-in-production: nGeniusONE Service Assurance analytics, InfiniStreamNG (ISNG) smart visibility appliances, nGeniusPULSE with nPoint sensors. The PSS Engineer and NetOps team collaborated to devise a troubleshooting workflow using the following NETSCOUT service elements: nGeniusPULSE with nPoints were used to generate synthetic testing to assess the performance of the Modbus data communications protocol used by the PLCs remotely installed across the delivery network. Since the PLCs were initiating health check requests every 10 seconds, the PSS Engineer concurred that could be an indication of issues occurring on the line. Through nGeniusPULSE synthetic testing, it was determined that monitoring transactions and TCP Retransmissions provided the most reliable indicator of issues. An nGeniusONE alert profile was configured to send email updates on the potential indicators of issues occurring between the PLCs and SCADA servers. With those alerts integrated into a customized nGeniusONE Service Dashboard view, NetOps was provided with a real-time snapshot into the health of the Modbus data communications protocol traffic.

Impact #1	Successful SCADA troubleshooting of energy transport network issue without downtime
Impact #2	Avoided outages and associated revenue impacts
Impact #3	Improved quality of service delivery

Impact #1

Successful SCADA troubleshooting of energy transport network issue without downtime

Impact #2

Avoided outages and associated revenue impacts

Impact #3

Improved quality of service delivery

Benefit #1	For every five-minute interval, an estimated 600 network transport transactions were saved when SCADA was operating properly.

Benefit #1

For every five-minute interval, an estimated 600 network transport transactions were saved when SCADA was operating properly.

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Overview

Assuring Energy Transportation Network Services With NETSCOUT

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit