Latency Analysis of WebSocket and Industrial Protocols in Real-Time Digital Twin Integration
Latency Analysis of WebSocket and Industrial Protocols in Real-Time Digital Twin Integration |
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| © 2025 by IJETT Journal | ||
| Volume-73 Issue-1 |
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| Year of Publication : 2025 | ||
| Author : Mohammed Hlayel, Hairulnizam Mahdin, Husaini Aza Mohd Adam |
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| DOI : 10.14445/22315381/IJETT-V73I1P110 | ||
How to Cite?
Mohammed Hlayel, Hairulnizam Mahdin, Husaini Aza Mohd Adam, "Latency Analysis of WebSocket and Industrial Protocols in Real-Time Digital Twin Integration," International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 120-135, 2025. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/22315381/IJETT-V73I1P110
Abstract
Integrating digital twins with industrial automation, particularly in remote environments, demands efficient real-time communication to synchronize virtual models with physical devices. Latency and resource usage are critical for ensuring seamless operation, especially when considering IEC 61588 standards, which mandate response times under 100 milliseconds for real-time systems. This paper presents a comparative analysis of WebSocket as an intermediary protocol with Siemens S7, benchmarked against widely used industrial communication protocols, including MQTT, Modbus, and OPC UA. The study focuses on real-time performance and resource efficiency in remote setups, using Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-based Node-RED as the protocols’ server. Although WebSocket is not an industrial automation standard, it demonstrated competitive latency and resource efficiency, particularly when integrated with Siemens S7 for remote operations. The results show that WebSocket with S7 outperforms other protocols like MQTT, while Modbus and OPC UA exhibit higher latency in cloud-based Node-RED environments. OPC UA’s performance significantly improved after optimizing the currently used Node-RED’s server sampling parameters. These findings underscore the need for further optimization of Node-RED nodes to enhance protocol handling in remote industrial settings, as performance still lags behind local configurations.
Keywords
Digital Twin, Modbus, MQTT, OPC UA, WebSocket, Real-Time communication.
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