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NETSCOUT > Case Studies > Assuring Energy Transportation Network Services With NETSCOUT
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Assuring Energy Transportation Network Services With 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
The 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 The 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.
The 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.
Operational Impact
  • Successful SCADA troubleshooting of energy transport network issue without downtime
  • Avoided outages and associated revenue impacts
  • Improved quality of service delivery
Quantitative Benefit
  • For every five-minute interval, an estimated 600 network transport transactions were saved when SCADA was operating properly.

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