Networking for containerization in automation

As IT and OT systems grow closer, containerization is becoming a key enabler for modern industrial applications. Since container technologies originate from the IT domain, enabling real-time deterministic networking in resource-constrained OT systems remains a major challenge. Kubernetes is widely used to orchestrate these industrial workloads, yet its networking depends on Container Network Interface (CNI) plugins that vary in performance and capabilities. This study reviews major CNIs and the existing significant literature.