1.9.3 Interoperability of Wireless Communication in Industry 4.0
Given that different communication technologies offer specific equipment and often use proprietary protocols and RFs, the interoperability of various networks is not yet guaranteed in industrial deployment. This results in complexity for both systems and end users. In addition, some current industrial networks are not practical in the near future. For instance, the standard bandwidth of an industrial control network is 100 Mb, which will not be able to handle the required data rates just a few years from now [223]. On the other hand, most of existing wireless communications target control systems and non-critical monitoring, and it is necessary to propose a viable wireless network for real-time services and process systems.
1.9.3.1 Possible Solutions
The future trend to use wireless communication in Industry 4.0 use cases is to standardize network protocols and technologies and to provide feasible deployment across equipment vendors, applications, and geo-locations. In the coming years, some wireless standards will be reviewed, standardized, and enhanced for some application domains. Currently, several wireless communication technologies offer partially modified and updated versions to cope with the industry and technology demands [214]. For instance, Wi-Fi6 is an initiative of the IEEE 802.11 family that will offer extended range and higher bandwidth in the coming years [87].
1.10 Conclusion
Industry 4.0 is a blueprint that digitizes the value chain and is highly instrumental in bringing physical production processes and their inherent real-time control functionalities to life. An essential aspect of implementing Industry 4.0 is the seamless connectivity of all value creation factors: service user, marketplace, and service provider. This concept envisages smart environments that offer a certain degree of automated control and processing, with minimum human interventions. At the core of this networking and integrated data concept is seamless communication that connects industrial environments and production areas. Diverse wireless standards and technologies are available to accelerate the deployment of smart technologies in process control and automation applications.
In this chapter, we first reviewed the concept of Industry 4.0 along with its technological requirements and applications. Subsequently, we detailed wireless technologies and international standards in this context. Since each wireless solution has its own pros and cons, we compared them based on a set of technical performance metrics to assist in choosing the appropriate wireless communication for a given application. Considering that existing wireless systems will be complemented or replaced by new developments such as cellular networks and MTC communications, such technologies were also fully covered in this chapter. A list of objectives in terms of resource and service indicators was also provided for an efficient design of wireless networks in IIoT environment. Finally, MAC protocols and smart sensors were discussed to address the key issues in the design process of wireless connectivity in the industrial Internet. We also reviewed a number of future research trends and directions in wireless communication for Industry 4.0.
References
1 1 Roblek, V., Bach, M.P., Mesko, M., and Berton- Celj, A. (May 2013). The impact of social media to value added in knowledge-based industries. Kybernetes 42 (4): 554–568.
2 2 Schlechtendahl, J., Keinert, M., Kretschmer, F., Lechler, A., and Verl, A. (Feb 2015). Making existing production systems industry 4.0- ready. Prod. Eng. 9: 143–148.
3 3 Almada-Lobo, F. (2016). The Industry 4.0 revolution and the future of manufacturing execution systems (MES). J. Innov. Manag. 3: 16–21.
4 4 Kagermann, H., Lukas, W.-D., and Wolfgang, W. (2011). Industrie 4.0 – mitdem Internet er dinge auf dem wegzur 4. Industriellen revolution. VDI Nachrichten 13 (1): 2–3.
5 5 Kagermann, H., Wahlster, W., and Helbig, J. (Apr 2013). Recommendations for Implementing the Strategic Initiative Industrie 4.0 – Securing the Future of German Manufacturing Industry. Final report of the Industrie 4.0 working group, ACATECH – National Academy of Science and Engineering, Miinchen. https://www.din.de/blob/76902/e8cac883f42bf28536e7e8165993f1fd/recommendations-for-implementing-industry-4-0-data.pdf.
6 6 Horizon. (2020). European commission. Call for factories of the future. https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/call-factories-future-1.
7 7 European Factories of the Future Research Association (EFFRA). Factories of the Future. https://www.effra.eu/factories-future.
8 8 Evans, P. and Annunziata, M. (Jan 2012). Industrial Internet: Pushing the boundaries of minds and machines. General Electric. https://www.ge.com/news/sites/default/files/5901.pdf.
9 9 Industrial Valuechain Initiative. What is IVI (Industrial Value Chain Initiative)? https://iv-i.org/wp/en/about-us/whatsivi.
10 10 Pereira, A.C. and Romero, F. (2017). A review of the meanings and the implications of the industry 4.0 concept. Procedia Manuf. 13: 1206–1214.
11 11 Schmidt, R., Mohring, M., Harting, R.-C., Reichstein, C., Neumaier, P., and Jozinovic, P. (Jun 2015). Industry 4.0 – potentials for creating smart products: Empirical research results. In: Business Information Systems (ed. W. Abramowicz), 16–27. Springer.
12 12 Kagermann, H. (2015). Change through digitization—value creation in the age of Industry 4.0. In: Management of Permanent Change (ed. H. Albach, H. Meffert, A. Pinkwart, and R. Reichwald), 23–45. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.
13 13 Radziwon, A., Bilberg, A., Bogers, M., and Madsen, E.S. (2014). The smart factory: Exploring adaptive and flexible manufacturing solutions. Procedia Eng. 69: 1184–1190.
14 14 Weyer, S., Schmitt, M., Ohmer, M., and Gorecky, D. (2015). Towards industry 4.0 – standardization as the crucial challenge for highly modular, multi-vendor production systems. IFAC- PapersOnLine 48 (3): 579–584.
15 15
