Page 40 - EngineerIT October 2022

NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

behind Big Data, the cloud, ubiquitous Open RAN best practice security
mobile communications and the Internet.

New field devices for completely tests are now available
new possibilities
The vision of the organisations driving
Ethernet-APL also includes concrete EC XON and Fortinet have collaborated to create a demonstration and test facility
requirements for Ethernet-APL-capable field of best practice Open RAN security in the NEC XON Experience Centre in South
devices and infrastructure components. NAfrica.
The principle is based on self-contained The Experience Centre now includes FortiGate from Fortinet, the world’s most
field devices that can be easily integrated deployed next-generation firewall and highest performing hyper-scale firewall, as well as
into any system environment without a NEC XON’s carrier-grade integration expertise and resources.
high degree of adaptation effort. Such “We can cost-effectively secure your Open RAN environment using Fortinet’s
devices can be automatically integrated FortiGate and companies can now test it in our Experience Centre before bringing it to a
by the system controller, whereby the live environment,” says Anthony Laing, GM of networking at NEC XON.
configuration made when the system was 5G massively increases data traffic and introduces architectural shifts to mobile
commissioned is automatically transferred network operator (MNO) and communication service provider (CSP) networks. Multi-
to the replacement device. access edge computing (MEC), for example, requires them to protect against emerging
Such devices not only instantiate threats without the customer experience.
themselves in the network. They can also Working with FortiGate, NEC XON can show customers how to get deep visibility into
be put into operation and easily replaced in their user, application and threat environments via a single pane of glass, and how to
case of failure without the need for time- protect themselves from unknown threats in the emerging 5G era.
consuming manual configuration. “There are new security concerns for the MNOs and CSPs in the 5G world,
Since Ethernet APL-capable field devices particularly where Open RAN enables integrated equipment from a multitude of
do not require a gateway to communicate vendors,” says Paul Willemse, technical sales consultant at NEC XON. “Key use cases to
with the automation system, there are no secure are the radio access network (RAN), mobile roaming, 5G edge deployments and
longer any restrictions on data transmission. the telco edge cloud (TEC).”
Instead, there is unrestricted access to all These types of security concerns have not traditionally been as advanced as
process and status data provided by the they are now in the Open RAN world, therefore traditionally relegating them to
respective device. These can be used not lower importance. However, it is essential to prioritise security in 5G and Open RAN
only for efficient process control. They are environments, since it imbeds security into the infrastructure, and secures these
also available for maintenance tasks and Big emerging threat vectors.
Data applications. Fortinet’s high-performance security solutions include automation capabilities and
Another new feature is that the device AI-driven threat intelligence that customers can test in the Experience Centre. Fortinet’s
description and the entire technical solutions will protect all domains and layers of MNO and CSP 5G networks. NEC XON
documentation of the field device are will leverage Fortinet solutions and the Japanese multinational ICT giant NEC’s network
embedded directly in the device itself. expertise, accumulated at its NEC Centres of Excellence (CoE) and NEC open networks.
This eliminates the need to laboriously NEC open networks is an industry-leading ecosystem consisting of an end-to-end
search and download drivers and device suite of open products and solutions, enabling the company to support CSPs with future-
information from the Internet, which proofed solutions in a safe and secure way.
significantly speeds up the development
and commissioning of an automation
system.
Thanks to Ethernet-compliant data
transmission completely independent
of the running process control, direct
access to field device data is now possible
from any location for the first time. This
not only speeds up maintenance and
trouble shooting. It also allows preventive
maintenance concepts, which can be vital
for the availability of the process plant. It
also enables a wealth of new applications
that will give the process industry a
completely new impetus.

EngineerIT | October 2022 | 38