12,294 research outputs found
Survey on wireless technology trade-offs for the industrial internet of things
Aside from vast deployment cost reduction, Industrial Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (IWSAN) introduce a new level of industrial connectivity. Wireless connection of sensors and actuators in industrial environments not only enables wireless monitoring and actuation, it also enables coordination of production stages, connecting mobile robots and autonomous transport vehicles, as well as localization and tracking of assets. All these opportunities already inspired the development of many wireless technologies in an effort to fully enable Industry 4.0. However, different technologies significantly differ in performance and capabilities, none being capable of supporting all industrial use cases. When designing a network solution, one must be aware of the capabilities and the trade-offs that prospective technologies have. This paper evaluates the technologies potentially suitable for IWSAN solutions covering an entire industrial site with limited infrastructure cost and discusses their trade-offs in an effort to provide information for choosing the most suitable technology for the use case of interest. The comparative discussion presented in this paper aims to enable engineers to choose the most suitable wireless technology for their specific IWSAN deployment
Caching-Aided Collaborative D2D Operation for Predictive Data Dissemination in Industrial IoT
Industrial automation deployments constitute challenging environments where
moving IoT machines may produce high-definition video and other heavy sensor
data during surveying and inspection operations. Transporting massive contents
to the edge network infrastructure and then eventually to the remote human
operator requires reliable and high-rate radio links supported by intelligent
data caching and delivery mechanisms. In this work, we address the challenges
of contents dissemination in characteristic factory automation scenarios by
proposing to engage moving industrial machines as device-to-device (D2D)
caching helpers. With the goal to improve reliability of high-rate
millimeter-wave (mmWave) data connections, we introduce the alternative
contents dissemination modes and then construct a novel mobility-aware
methodology that helps develop predictive mode selection strategies based on
the anticipated radio link conditions. We also conduct a thorough system-level
evaluation of representative data dissemination strategies to confirm the
benefits of predictive solutions that employ D2D-enabled collaborative caching
at the wireless edge to lower contents delivery latency and improve data
acquisition reliability
Enabling Communication Technologies for Automated Unmanned Vehicles in Industry 4.0
Within the context of Industry 4.0, mobile robot systems such as automated
guided vehicles (AGVs) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are one of the major
areas challenging current communication and localization technologies. Due to
stringent requirements on latency and reliability, several of the existing
solutions are not capable of meeting the performance required by industrial
automation applications. Additionally, the disparity in types and applications
of unmanned vehicle (UV) calls for more flexible communication technologies in
order to address their specific requirements. In this paper, we propose several
use cases for UVs within the context of Industry 4.0 and consider their
respective requirements. We also identify wireless technologies that support
the deployment of UVs as envisioned in Industry 4.0 scenarios.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl
Statistical Delay Bound for WirelessHART Networks
In this paper we provide a performance analysis framework for wireless
industrial networks by deriving a service curve and a bound on the delay
violation probability. For this purpose we use the (min,x) stochastic network
calculus as well as a recently presented recursive formula for an end-to-end
delay bound of wireless heterogeneous networks. The derived results are mapped
to WirelessHART networks used in process automation and were validated via
simulations. In addition to WirelessHART, our results can be applied to any
wireless network whose physical layer conforms the IEEE 802.15.4 standard,
while its MAC protocol incorporates TDMA and channel hopping, like e.g.
ISA100.11a or TSCH-based networks. The provided delay analysis is especially
useful during the network design phase, offering further research potential
towards optimal routing and power management in QoS-constrained wireless
industrial networks.Comment: Accepted at PE-WASUN 201
Wireless industrial monitoring and control networks: the journey so far and the road ahead
While traditional wired communication technologies have played a crucial role in industrial monitoring and control networks over the past few decades, they are increasingly proving to be inadequate to meet the highly dynamic and stringent demands of today’s industrial applications, primarily due to the very rigid nature of wired infrastructures. Wireless technology, however, through its increased pervasiveness, has the potential to revolutionize the industry, not only by mitigating the problems faced by wired solutions, but also by introducing a completely new class of applications. While present day wireless technologies made some preliminary inroads in the monitoring domain, they still have severe limitations especially when real-time, reliable distributed control operations are concerned. This article provides the reader with an overview of existing wireless technologies commonly used in the monitoring and control industry. It highlights the pros and cons of each technology and assesses the degree to which each technology is able to meet the stringent demands of industrial monitoring and control networks. Additionally, it summarizes mechanisms proposed by academia, especially serving critical applications by addressing the real-time and reliability requirements of industrial process automation. The article also describes certain key research problems from the physical layer communication for sensor networks and the wireless networking perspective that have yet to be addressed to allow the successful use of wireless technologies in industrial monitoring and control networks
Energy Efficient and Reliable Wireless Sensor Networks - An Extension to IEEE 802.15.4e
Collecting sensor data in industrial environments from up to some tenth of
battery powered sensor nodes with sampling rates up to 100Hz requires energy
aware protocols, which avoid collisions and long listening phases. The IEEE
802.15.4 standard focuses on energy aware wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and
the Task Group 4e has published an amendment to fulfill up to 100 sensor value
transmissions per second per sensor node (Low Latency Deterministic Network
(LLDN) mode) to satisfy demands of factory automation. To improve the
reliability of the data collection in the star topology of the LLDN mode, we
propose a relay strategy, which can be performed within the LLDN schedule.
Furthermore we propose an extension of the star topology to collect data from
two-hop sensor nodes. The proposed Retransmission Mode enables power savings in
the sensor node of more than 33%, while reducing the packet loss by up to 50%.
To reach this performance, an optimum spatial distribution is necessary, which
is discussed in detail
A critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial wireless sensor networks
In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks (IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with applications spanning a wide range of industries including automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems, deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are discussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs
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