VPN Mesh in Industrial Networking

Sammanfattning: This thesis report describes the process and present the results gained while evaluating available VPN mesh solutions and equipment for integration into Industrial systems. The task was divided into several sub steps; summarize the previous work done in the VPN mesh area, evaluate the available VPN mesh solutions, verify that the interesting equipment comply with the criteria set by ABB and lastly verify that the equipment can be integrated transparently into already running systems. The result shows that there is equipment that complies with the criteria, which can also be integrated transparently into running systems. The result also shows that IPSec should be used as the VPN protocol since IPSec can make use of the crypto hardware whereas TLS based VPNs currently cannot. Even though the implementation of secure gateways would provide authentication and authorization to the network, the cost of implementing these gateways would be great. The best solution would be to present the evaluated equipment as an optional feature instead of making it standard equipment in each system.