Layered Software Challenge of Wireless Technology in the Oil & Gas Industry

Recent advances in wireless technology have enabled the development of low-cost wireless solutions capable of robust and reliable communication within application areas such as wireless networking, wireless sensor networks, and asset tracking. For the oil & gas industry, utilizing this technology will lead to reduced operating costs and enable new applications. There are several challenges related to the introduction of wireless technology in the oil & gas industry. Primarily, wireless devices have to execute software implementations of complex network algorithms with real-time requirements on embedded platforms with limited resources and low-power requirements. Further, how to enable the monitoring and control applications of the wireless solutions to be managed and operated by technical personnel who do not necessarily have extensive knowledge of the underlying wireless technology. And finally, wireless systems should seamlessly integrate with already existing IT infrastructure and user applications. In this paper, issues related to these challenges are investigated.