SCADA systems
SCADA systems are generally divided into two types: Traditional, which focuses on basic monitoring and control, and High-Performance, emphasizing streamlined interfaces, faster decision-making, and enhanced operational efficiency.
The main advantage of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems is their ability to monitor production processes in real time and respond quickly to deviations. ThingsBoard provides comprehensive tools to collect, process, and visualize data from SCADA components, such as PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) and RCUs (Remote Control Units), enabling seamless integration with various industrial processes.
To illustrate the flexibility of ThingsBoard's SCADA integration, we have developed the Swimming Pool Management System template. This solution demonstrates how SCADA symbols—such as valves, motors, filters and tanks—can be utilized to create simple yet powerful process control systems. It enables any production process to be visualized on a dashboard, allowing for real-time monitoring of equipment operation and timely detection of alarm signals. The template is designed to accommodate both Traditional and High-Performance SCADA systems.
SCADA overview
Design approach
Color-coded visualization (active)
Color-coded visualization (inactive)
Alarm indicators (warning)
Alarm indicators (critical)
Interactivity
High-performance
Simplified, minimalist approach for focused operation
White elements
Dark gray elements
Yellow triangle, animated
Red square, animated
Not explicitly interactive
Traditional
Dynamic, visually engaging and interactive design
Green elements
Dark gray elements
Yellow color, animated
Red color, animated
Fully interactive components
High-performance
Traditional
Design approach
Color-coded visualization (active)
Color-coded visualization (inactive)
Alarm indicators (warning)
Alarm Indicators (critical)
Interactivity
Solution structure
PLCs and RTUs
Seamlessly integrate your SCADA system with PLCs and RTUs using ThingsBoard integrations and IoT Gateway. Support for Modbus, OPC-UA, BACnet, and other popular protocols ensures reliable real-time data collection and control.
IoT gateway
ThingsBoard’s IoT Gateway bridges the gap between legacy SCADA devices and modern IoT platforms. It ensures data reliability with built-in local data storage during network outages and supports efficient protocol conversion, secure data transmission, and centralized device management.
Data processing
Unlock actionable insights with ThingsBoard’s robust data processing tools. Perform real-time transformations, apply complex rules, and automate workflows with built-in rule chains and scriptable integrations.
Alarm system
Enhance operational awareness with ThingsBoard’s advanced alarm system. Manage incident workflows with features like alarm acknowledgment, clearing, commenting, and configurable escalation rules.
Notification system
Stay informed with ThingsBoard’s flexible notification system, delivering alerts via email, SMS, Slack, or custom webhooks. Automate critical notifications based on configurable conditions and thresholds.
IoT dashboards
Visualize your SCADA data with ThingsBoard’s real-time IoT dashboards. Design interactive views using SCADA symbols, customizable widgets, and dynamic updates to monitor and control processes seamlessly.
Key functions of SCADA systems
Connectors and Flow Direction
These symbols are designed to visualize and organize pipe connections, providing a clear representation of junctions and flow directions.
Fluid filtration
Filter symbols provide visualization and control over filtration processes, ensuring the cleanliness and safety of the liquids being used in the system.
Pump monitoring and management
A range of pump symbols (centrifugal, heat, motor pumps) allows for monitoring the performance and efficiency of pump systems. This solution is particularly important for regulating pressure and liquid volumes.
Flow regulation
These symbols allow operators to manage fluid flow through pipelines by opening or closing valves remotely. This ensures flexibility in regulating flow rates and isolating system segments during maintenance or emergencies.
Tank level monitoring
Tank level meter and reservoir symbols enable operators to monitor liquid levels within the system, preventing both overflow and depletion—critical for water supply and chemical processes.
Scales for Real-Time Monitoring
Scales provide an intuitive way to monitor various parameters in real time, such as temperature, pressure, or flow rate. The scales enable operators to track current values and identify deviations from the desired range, ensuring precise control over system performance.
Pipe monitoring and leakage sensors
Drain pipe symbols help visualize areas where potential liquid leaks might occur. In SCADA systems, this solution can be integrated with sensors to immediately alert operators to any issues.
Fluid filtration
Filter symbols provide visualization and control over filtration processes, ensuring the cleanliness and safety of the liquids being used in the system.
Pump monitoring and management
A range of pump symbols (centrifugal, heat, motor pumps) allows for monitoring the performance and efficiency of pump systems. This solution is particularly important for regulating pressure and liquid volumes.
Flow regulation
Flow meter and valve symbols allow precise control of fluid flow through pipelines, which is essential for filtration, cooling, and water supply systems.
Tank level monitoring
Tank level meter and reservoir symbols enable operators to monitor liquid levels within the system, preventing both overflow and depletion—critical for water supply and chemical processes.
Dashboard structure
Applications of SCADA systems
Water and wastewater management
Ensuring continuous water supply and efficient wastewater treatment is made easier through precise control and management of systems.
Food industry
Product quality control is achieved through precise management of processes like mixing, heating, and cooling of liquids.
Energy and heating
Optimization of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems becomes more efficient with accurate control of flows and temperatures.
Oil and gas industry
From extraction to refining, SCADA symbols help manage complex processes, ensuring the safety and efficiency of operations.
Chemical industry
Filter symbols provide visualization and control over filtration processes, ensuring the cleanliness and safety of the liquids being used in the system.
Water and wastewater management
Ensuring continuous water supply and efficient wastewater treatment is made easier through precise control and management of systems.
Food industry
Product quality control is achieved through precise management of processes like mixing, heating, and cooling of liquids.
Energy and heating
Optimization of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems becomes more efficient with accurate control of flows and temperatures.
Oil and gas industry
From extraction to refining, SCADA symbols help manage complex processes, ensuring the safety and efficiency of operations.
Chemical industry
Filter symbols provide visualization and control over filtration processes, ensuring the cleanliness and safety of the liquids being used in the system.
ThingsBoard advantages
ThingsBoard supports industry-standard encryption algorithms like RSA and ECDSA to ensure the data is secure during transfer via TLS(TCP) and DTLS (UDP).
Visualize your data effortlessly with ThingsBoard’s rich, interactive dashboards. Create multi-state, real-time dashboards using built-in widgets like charts, gauges, maps, and tables—no coding required. Customize layouts or develop custom widgets for complete flexibility. WebSocket support ensures low-latency updates.
Connect devices directly to ThingsBoard using protocols like HTTP, CoAP, MQTT, LwM2M, SNMP, LoRaWAN, and NB-IoT. For local networks, ThingsBoard Gateway bridges the cloud via Modbus, BLE, BACnet, OPC-UA, and more. Advanced protocol translation and offline data buffering ensure reliable communication even in challenging conditions.
ThingsBoard supports high-availability deployments on cloud and on-premises data centers using K8S or bare-metal deployments. Platform components are horizontally scalable. ThingsBoard has production deployments supporting more then 18 000 vehicles and 500 000 devices connected.
ThingsBoard allows you to define application logic with drag-n-drop rule chain designer. The Rule Engine is a robust and scalable processing framework that leverages industry-standard message queue implementations like Apache Kafka or AWS SQS to ensure data durability and guarantee data processing. You are free to process data with the Rule engine or push it to further processing in external systems.
ThingsBoard provides UI and API to manage tenants, customers, users, devices, and assets. Single tenant may have multiple tenant administrators and millions of devices and customers. It also offers out-of-the-box support of OTA updates for your smart meters.
Connect LoRaWAN devices via integrations with standard network servers like TTN, LORIOT, ChirpStack, Actility, etc. Connect SigFox devices via integrations with the SigFox backend.
Build your own IoT mobile application with minimum coding efforts using ThingsBoard Mobile Application, an open-source project based on Flutter. Leverage a built-in set of mobile actions to take a photo, scan QR code, update location, and more directly within the dashboard.