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

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

Networked control system with MANET communication and AODV routing

The industries are presently exploring the use of wired and wireless systems for control, automation, and monitoring. The primary benefit of wireless technology is that it reduces the installation cost, in both money and labor terms, as companies already have a significant investment in wiring. The research article presents the work on the analysis of Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) in a wireless real-time communication medium for a Networked Control System (NCS), and determining whether the simulated behavior is significant for a plant or not. The behavior of the MANET is analyzed for Ad-hoc on-demand distance vector routing (AODV) that maintenances communication among 150 nodes for NCS. The simulation is carried out in Network Simulator (NS2) software with different nodes cluster to estimate the network throughput, end-to-end delay, packet delivery ratio (PDR), and control overhead. The benefit of MANET is that it has a fixed topology, which permits flexibility since mobile devices may be used to construct ad-hoc networks anywhere, scalability because more nodes can be added to the network, and minimal operating expenses in that no original infrastructure needs to be developed. AODV routing is a flat routing system that does not require central routing nodes. As the network grows in size, the network can be scaled to meet the network design and configuration requirements. AODV is flexible to support different configurations and topological nodes in dynamic networks because of its versatility. The advantage of such network simulation and routing behavior provides the future direction for the researchers who are working towards the embedded hardware solutions for NCS, as the hardware complexity depends on the delay, throughput, and PDR

Availability and End-to-end Reliability in Low Duty Cycle Multihop Wireless Sensor Networks

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is an ad-hoc technology that may even consist of thousands of nodes, which necessitates autonomic, self-organizing and multihop operations. A typical WSN node is battery powered, which makes the network lifetime the primary concern. The highest energy efficiency is achieved with low duty cycle operation, however, this alone is not enough. WSNs are deployed for different uses, each requiring acceptable Quality of Service (QoS). Due to the unique characteristics of WSNs, such as dynamic wireless multihop routing and resource constraints, the legacy QoS metrics are not feasible as such. We give a new definition to measure and implement QoS in low duty cycle WSNs, namely availability and reliability. Then, we analyze the effect of duty cycling for reaching the availability and reliability. The results are obtained by simulations with ZigBee and proprietary TUTWSN protocols. Based on the results, we also propose a data forwarding algorithm suitable for resource constrained WSNs that guarantees end-to-end reliability while adding a small overhead that is relative to the packet error rate (PER). The forwarding algorithm guarantees reliability up to 30% PER

A comprehensive survey of wireless body area networks on PHY, MAC, and network layers solutions

Recent advances in microelectronics and integrated circuits, system-on-chip design, wireless communication and intelligent low-power sensors have allowed the realization of a Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). A WBAN is a collection of low-power, miniaturized, invasive/non-invasive lightweight wireless sensor nodes that monitor the human body functions and the surrounding environment. In addition, it supports a number of innovative and interesting applications such as ubiquitous healthcare, entertainment, interactive gaming, and military applications. In this paper, the fundamental mechanisms of WBAN including architecture and topology, wireless implant communication, low-power Medium Access Control (MAC) and routing protocols are reviewed. A comprehensive study of the proposed technologies for WBAN at Physical (PHY), MAC, and Network layers is presented and many useful solutions are discussed for each layer. Finally, numerous WBAN applications are highlighted

Energy-aware routing protocols in wireless sensor networks

Saving energy and increasing network lifetime are significant challenges in the field of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Energy-aware routing protocols have been introduced for WSNs to overcome limitations of WSN including limited power resources and difficulties renewing or recharging sensor nodes batteries. Furthermore, the potentially inhospitable environments of sensor locations, in some applications, such as the bottom of the ocean, or inside tornados also have to be considered. ZigBee is one of the latest communication standards designed for WSNs based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. The ZigBee standard supports two routing protocols, the Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV), and the cluster-tree routing protocols. These protocols are implemented to establish the network, form clusters, and transfer data between the nodes. The AODV and the cluster-tree routing protocols are two of the most efficient routing protocols in terms of reducing the control message overhead, reducing the bandwidth usage in the network, and reducing the power consumption of wireless sensor nodes compared to other routing protocols. However, neither of these protocols considers the energy level or the energy consumption rate of the wireless sensor nodes during the establishment or routing processes. (Continues...)