Secure and efficient communication to establish a seamless nexus between the five levels of a typical automation pyramid is paramount to Industry 4.0. Specifically, vertical and horizontal integration of these levels is an overarching requirement to accelerate productivity and improve operational activities. Vertical integration can improve visibility, flexibility, and productivity by connecting systems and applications. Horizontal integration can provide better collaboration and adaptability by connecting internal production facilities, multi-site operations, and third-party partners in a supply chain. In this paper, we propose an Edge-computing-based Industrial Gateway for interfacing information technology and operational technology that can enable Industry 4.0 vertical and horizontal integration. Subsequently, we design and develop a working prototype to demonstrate a remote production-line maintenance use case with a strong focus on security aspects and the edge paradigm to bring computational resources and data storage closer to data sources.

翻译：在典型的自动化金字塔五个层级之间建立无缝连接的安全高效通信，对于工业4.0至关重要。具体而言，实现这些层级的纵向与横向集成是提升生产力和改进运营活动的核心要求。纵向集成可通过连接系统与应用程序来提升可见性、灵活性和生产力。横向集成则通过连接内部生产设施、多站点运营以及供应链中的第三方合作伙伴，实现更优的协作与适应性。本文提出一种基于边缘计算的工业网关，用于对接信息技术与运营技术，从而支持工业4.0的纵向与横向集成。随后，我们设计并开发了一个可运行的原型系统，通过远程生产线维护用例进行演示，该原型重点关注安全层面及边缘计算范式，旨在使计算资源和数据存储更贴近数据源。