An IEEE Standard for the Evaluation of Wireless Networks for Industrial Automation

Published

November 15, 2022

Author(s)

Rick Candell, Mohamed Hany, Javier Perez-Ramirez, Juan Conchas

Abstract

Adoption of wireless systems for use in industrial scenarios is increasing, although slowly, in process control and discrete manufacturing. In particular, factories must make the leap towards wireless networks as a central form of communications to enable certain capabilities outlined by Industry 4.0. Acceptance of wireless as a principal communications mode is slowed by the fact that it is indeed less reliable and less deterministic than its wired counterparts. The industrial wireless medium is susceptible to interference and multi-path fading effects, and their impacts are exacerbated by the mission critical nature of the attached sensing and control applications. Adoption of wireless networks can be made more acceptable if the uncertainty of the wireless medium is better understood and wireless devices designed to accommodate such uncertainty. This can be achieved through analysis of the RF environment beyond its propagation characteristics and the standardized evaluation of network performance prior to deployment. This paper describes a solution to the problem of industrial wireless network evaluation through the standardization effort of IEEE P1451.5p. Here, we present the approach being developed by the IEEE P1451.5p working group. A strategy for modeling channel degradation factors and schemas for profiling the model for replication of different radio environment scenarios are presented.

Citation

IEEE Internet of Things Magazine

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/IOTM.001.2200069

Local Download

Keywords

industrial wireless networks, factory communications, wireless channels, channel aggressors, IEEE 1451.5p, advanced communications

Citation

Candell, R. , Hany, M. , Perez-Ramirez, J. and Conchas, J. (2022), An IEEE Standard for the Evaluation of Wireless Networks for Industrial Automation, IEEE Internet of Things Magazine, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/IOTM.001.2200069, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=934487 (Accessed October 16, 2025)