wilamowski-b-m-irwin-j-d-industrial-communication-systems-2011

6
Industrial Wireless
Sensor Networks
Vehbi Cagri Gungor
Bahcesehir University
Gerhard P. Hancke
University of Pretoria
6.1 Applications....................................................................................... 6-2
Factory Automation. •. Building Automation. •. Industrial
Process Automation. •. Inventory Management. •. Utility
Automation. •. Automatic Meter Reading
6.2 Standardization Activities............................................................... 6-3
ZigBee. •. Wireless Hart. •. IETF 6loWPAN. •. Bluetooth
and Bluetooth Low Energy. •. Ultra-Wideband
6.3 Technical Challenges........................................................................6-5
6.4 Design Goals......................................................................................6-6
6.5 Design Principles and Technical Approaches.............................. 6-7
Hardware Development. •. Software Development. •. System
Architecture and Protocol Design
6.6 Conclusions and Future Work...................................................... 6-12
References....................................................................................................6-13
Given the increasing age of many industrial systems and the dynamic industrial manufacturing market,
industrial monitoring and control systems are critical to maintain safety, reliability, efficiency, and
uptime. Industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs), with their unique characteristics such as flexibility,
self-organization, low cost, and rapid deployment, have become a promising technology for intelligent
and low-cost industrial automation systems [3,9,47–49]. In these systems, wireless tiny sensor
nodes are installed on industrial equipment and monitor the parameters critical to each equipment’s
efficiency based on a combination of measurements such as vibration, temperature, pressure, and power
quality. These data are then wirelessly transmitted to a sink node that analyzes the data from each sensor.
Any potential problems are notified to the plant personnel as an advanced warning system. This
enables plant personnel to repair or replace equipment, before their efficiency drops or they fail entirely
[9,29]. In this way, catastrophic equipment failures and the associated repair and replacement costs can
be prevented while complying with strict environmental regulations.
The collaborative nature of IWSNs brings several advantages over traditional wired industrial monitoring
and control systems, including self-organization, rapid deployment, flexibility, and inherent
intelligent processing capability. In this regard, IWSN plays a vital role in creating a highly reliable
and self-healing industrial system that rapidly responds to real-time events with appropriate actions.
However, to realize the envisioned industrial applications and hence take the advantages of the potential
gains of IWSN, effective communication protocols, which can address the unique challenges posed by
such systems, are required.
Recently, many researchers have been engaged in developing schemes that address the unique challenges
of IWSNs. In this chapter, first a short review about the emerging and already employed IWSN
applications and technologies is presented. In addition, IWSN standards are presented for the system
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© 2011 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC