Pipelines, water networks, power transmission systems, and remote production facilities are monitored and controlled by SCADA systems that many people running them were never formally trained on. The result is SCADA systems that work — until they do not. This course teaches SCADA the way it is designed and implemented for distributed assets. It covers architecture, RTUs and field devices, telemetry, the SCADA protocols, HMI and historian, redundancy, and the security considerations specific to wide-area systems.
The work is anchored in the protocols and practices that define real SCADA: DNP3, Modbus and IEC 60870-5 for telemetry, high-performance HMI design for situational awareness, and the secure remote access discipline that wide-area systems demand. It opens with what SCADA is, how it differs from a DCS, and where each fits, then moves into SCADA architecture: master stations, RTUs, and the communications that connect sites separated by kilometres rather than metres.