V. CURRENT RESEARCH AREAS
A. Wireless Technology
There is currently a trend within industrial networking
to implement fieldbus protocols using wireless technologies
[7]. There are many parallels between the current movement
towards wireless and the previous movement towards Ethernet.
As with Ethernet, it was decided that the reutilisation of
existing standards was preferable to the development of new
physical and data-link layers specifically for industrial use, as
it allowed the existing research and manufacturing base to be
exploited in order to decrease development time and costs.
Technologies that make use of unlicensed bandwidth are the
most popular, such as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
IEC 802.11, IEC 802.15.1 known as Bluetooth and IEC
802.15.4 which is used as the basis of the ZigBee protocol. The
benefits of wireless technology are clear - a further reduction
in the amount of wiring required for communication, which
in turn reduces installation costs.
Wireless is also particularly suitable for hazardous environments
or installation on moving equipment where cabling may
be easily damaged or restrict the operation of the machinery to
be monitored. Faster commissioning and reconfiguration can
also be realised [32]. However, it can be said that standard
wireless technology is even less suited to industrial use than
Ethernet was and adaptation of the existing technology for
real-time communication is the subject of much research. For
example, [33] describes attempts to implement PROFIBUS
over wireless. Both [32] and [34] discuss the use of wireless
technology in industrial automation at length and the reader
is encouraged to consult them for a deeper understanding of
the field.
Much like Ethernet, the existing wireless technology was
developed for use outside of industry and no considerations for
real-time response or determinism are inherent in the media.
Wireless faces additional challenges that need to be addressed
for industrial application [32]. Wireless is highly susceptible
to interference from a variety of sources, which causes transmission
errors. Within the transmission channel itself, effects
such as multi-path fading and intersymbol interference are
present. Interference from other transmission channels is also
possible, such as might occur at the boundaries between two
wireless fieldbusses. Environmental electromagnetic emissions
may also affect wireless transmission, such as those produced
by large motors and electrical discharges. Thermal noise can
negatively affect transmission, as can the Doppler-shift induced
by rapidly moving equipment. Such interference is often
transient in nature, resulting in bursts of data and affecting the
reliability and determinability of the transmission. Wireless
transmission radii are limited by transmission strength and
negatively affected by path-fading, the degree of which is
determined by environmental factors. This makes it difficult to
design a wireless network for industrial use without first determining
the path-fading coefficient throughout the intended
usage area.