Industrial use cases

Industrial use cases

fluxrig is a high-performance distributed runtime engineered for the convergence of Operational Technology (OT) and institutional IT infrastructure. It functions as an Industrial DataOps Runtime, providing a memory-safe execution layer for protocol normalization, heterogeneous data aggregation, and deterministic logic at the factory edge.

By composing specialized Gears, industrial engineers can transform raw PLC registers and mesh-network data into semantic, cloud-ready events without modifying mission-critical control hardware.

The Unified Namespace (UNS) strategy

fluxrig is a native implementation of the Unified Namespace architectural pattern. By using the Mixer as the central source of truth for the entity registry and the secure mTLS transport, the platform enables a single, contextualized hierarchy for all industrial data, bridging the gap between the shop floor (OT) and the boardroom (IT).

TIP

This strategy is central to modern Industrial DataOps. For more context on the terminology and industry alignment, see the Foundation Components guide.

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Operational patterns

Unlike monolithic IIoT gateways, fluxrig provides a flexible spectrum of operational patterns for high-performance industrial automation.

Passive data acquisition (SPAN)

For legacy environments where touching the PLC cycle is restricted, fluxrig operates as a passive observer.

• Zero Impact: Capturing OT traffic from a switch mirror port allows for full telemetry acquisition with absolute isolation from the industrial physical process.
• Shadow Verification: Running a digital twin in parallel with legacy SCADA systems to validate new logic before a production cutover.

Active normalization and control

In this pattern, fluxrig acts as an inline gateway, actively polling OT data and applying real-time logic before transmission to the central ecosystem.

• Protocol Aggregation: Direct translation from bit-level binary registers (Modbus, Profinet) or mesh data (LoRaWAN, Zigbee) to semantic fluxMsg events via the Bento Gear.
• Autonomous Edge Filtering: Executing high-frequency thresholding and filtering locally. Only relevant "Critical Events" (e.g., Pressure Variance > 5%) are transmitted, significantly reducing bandwidth and cloud ingestion costs.

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Visualization: The industrial verification rig

Step-by-step processing

1. Data Aggregation (1-2): Disparate data from PLCs and mesh sensors are merged into a unified internal bus.
2. Data Normalization (3): Data is normalized into the standard fluxMsg format, attaching sovereign metadata (traceID, MachineID).
3. Audit Integrity (4): The Correlator Gear ensures every industrial event is logged to the local immutable archive before external transmission.
4. Anomaly Detection (5): Real-time deviations are diverted to the SRE alerting tier for immediate operational response.

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Sovereign security: inbound zero

Industrial environments require absolute isolation. fluxrig enforces a strict Inbound Zero policy via secure mTLS tunnels:

• Outbound Initiation: The localized Rack initiates the connection to the Central Mixer; no inbound ports are opened on the industrial firewall.
• Surface Attack Elimination: By maintaining a closed-firewall profile, the factory floor remains invisible to public internet scanning and lateral movement attacks.

CAUTION

Industrial Warning: Execution Latency

Running complex logic on resource-constrained distributed nodes can introduce execution latency.

• Impact: High CPU contention may delay high-frequency poller signals (e.g., sub-10ms RTU acquisition).
• Recommendation: Prioritize the Stable Bento Gear for data acquisition and maintain lean logic profiles to ensure deterministic data acquisition.

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Implementation reference

Gear	Function	Status
Bento	Universal Protocol Bridge (Modbus, MQTT, SMTP)	Stable
io_modbus	Native TCP/RTU High-Speed Poller	Planned
network_sniffer	Passive OT Traffic Capture	Planned
Wasm Logic	Custom Edge Filtering & Autonomy	Planned

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Implementation reference

Gear	Function	Status
Bento	Universal Protocol Bridge (Modbus, MQTT, SMTP)	Stable
io_modbus	Native TCP/RTU High-Speed Poller	Planned
network_sniffer	Passive OT Traffic Capture	Planned
Wasm Logic	Custom Edge Filtering & Autonomy	Planned