Distributed SCADA architecture in SCADA systems - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Distributed SCADA Architecture Setup

📖 Scenario: You are working as a junior engineer in a factory that uses a SCADA system to monitor and control its machines. The factory wants to improve reliability by setting up a distributed SCADA architecture. This means multiple SCADA nodes will share data and control tasks across the factory floor.Your job is to create a simple configuration that represents this distributed setup with nodes and their connections.

🎯 Goal: Build a basic distributed SCADA architecture model using a dictionary to represent SCADA nodes and their connected nodes. Then add a configuration variable for the maximum allowed connections per node. Finally, write code to find nodes that exceed this limit and print them.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary called scada_nodes with exact node names and their connected nodes

Add an integer variable called max_connections set to 3

Use a for loop with variables node and connections to iterate over scada_nodes.items()

Create a list called overloaded_nodes containing nodes with connections greater than max_connections

Print the overloaded_nodes list

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Distributed SCADA systems improve reliability by sharing control and monitoring tasks across multiple nodes, reducing single points of failure.

💼 Career

Understanding how to model and configure distributed SCADA architectures is essential for roles in industrial automation and control system engineering.

1

Create SCADA nodes dictionary

Create a dictionary called scada_nodes with these exact entries: 'NodeA': ['NodeB', 'NodeC'], 'NodeB': ['NodeA', 'NodeC', 'NodeD', 'NodeE'], 'NodeC': ['NodeA', 'NodeB'], 'NodeD': ['NodeB'], 'NodeE': ['NodeB']

SCADA systems

# Create the scada_nodes dictionary with exact nodes and connections
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces {} to create a dictionary. Each key is a node name string, and each value is a list of connected node strings.

2

Add max connections configuration

Add an integer variable called max_connections and set it to 3

SCADA systems

scada_nodes = {
    'NodeA': ['NodeB', 'NodeC'],
    'NodeB': ['NodeA', 'NodeC', 'NodeD', 'NodeE'],
    'NodeC': ['NodeA', 'NodeB'],
    'NodeD': ['NodeB'],
    'NodeE': ['NodeB']
}
# Add max_connections variable set to 3
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just write max_connections = 3 on a new line.

3

Find overloaded nodes

Use a for loop with variables node and connections to iterate over scada_nodes.items(). Create a list called overloaded_nodes containing nodes where the length of connections is greater than max_connections

SCADA systems

scada_nodes = {
    'NodeA': ['NodeB', 'NodeC'],
    'NodeB': ['NodeA', 'NodeC', 'NodeD', 'NodeE'],
    'NodeC': ['NodeA', 'NodeB'],
    'NodeD': ['NodeB'],
    'NodeE': ['NodeB']
}
max_connections = 3
# Create overloaded_nodes list with nodes having connections > max_connections
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use for node, connections in scada_nodes.items(): and check len(connections) > max_connections. Append such nodes to overloaded_nodes.

4

Print overloaded nodes

Write a print statement to display the overloaded_nodes list

SCADA systems

scada_nodes = {
    'NodeA': ['NodeB', 'NodeC'],
    'NodeB': ['NodeA', 'NodeC', 'NodeD', 'NodeE'],
    'NodeC': ['NodeA', 'NodeB'],
    'NodeD': ['NodeB'],
    'NodeE': ['NodeB']
}
max_connections = 3
overloaded_nodes = []
for node, connections in scada_nodes.items():
    if len(connections) > max_connections:
        overloaded_nodes.append(node)
# Print the overloaded_nodes list
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(overloaded_nodes) to show the list of nodes with too many connections.