Towards hybrid wired-wireless networks in industrial applications
Lisa Underberg, Ruediger Kays, Steven Dietrich, Gerhard Fohler · 2018
Cyber-physical systems (CPS) will facilitate current and enable future industrial applications, if interoperability issues are overcome and full flexibility is accessible. However, the currently employed wired networks, especially in demanding factory automation applications, are rigid in their communication protocol and their physical structure. Moreover, they will not be completely replaced by a more flexible and retrofittable wireless network in the near future. In order to support the implementation of industrial CPS, hybrid wired-wireless networks have to be developed. Here, the cooperation of wired and wireless network has to be efficient to fulfill the challenging industrial requirements and maintain the wired network's performance. In this paper, we specify these requirements by reviewing industrial applications and identify the relevant properties of state of the art industrial networks. This review reveals a lack of wired-wireless networks in factory automation, since current wireless networks are not suitable to fulfil the applications' requirements. Therefore, basic wireless concepts are discussed and a recommendation for a suitable hybrid communication network design is given.