US 12,244,450 B1
Method and system for network segmentation using safety integrity level (SIL)
Swapna Anandan, Fremont, CA (US); Elango Ganesan, Portola Valley, CA (US); and Flemming S Andreasen, Marlboro, NJ (US)
Assigned to CISCO TECHNOLOGY, INC., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by Cisco Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Sep. 5, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/461,267.
Int. Cl. H04L 41/06 (2022.01); H04L 67/12 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 41/06 (2013.01) [H04L 67/12 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of prioritizing operational technology (OT) control systems performed by a network control system, the method comprising:
receiving, by a network interface communicatively coupled to the OT control systems in a safety instrumented system (SIS) environment, a plurality of network packets associated with the OT control systems;
identifying, from the plurality of network packets, a plurality of OT control systems associated with safety integrity level (SIL) values;
in response to identifying the plurality of OT control systems associated with the SIL values, determining priority levels from the SIL values of the plurality of OT control systems;
identifying network packets associated with a critical OT control system, among the plurality of OT control systems, that is associated with a SIL value having a higher priority level; and
prioritizing the critical OT control system comprising:
encoding the network packets, associated with the critical OT control system, with corresponding SIL value, wherein the critical OT control system is prioritized based on the corresponding SIL value and classified into a network group associated with a network tag to perform safety operations.