Heterogeneous wireless connectivity for fixed and mobile sensing applications in industrial environments

Improving the workers' health and safety should be a key priority in the design and development of the Factory of the Future concept. To this aim, ICT and wireless communication technologies in particular, can represent very valuable tools to implement distributed and mobile sensing applications capable to continuously sense the working environment and the workers' health and safety conditions. However, the harsh propagation conditions that can characterise industrial environments can complicate the efficient and reliable deployment of wireless solutions in factories. In this context, this paper evaluates the reliability and connectivity of heterogeneous wireless technologies that can be used for implementing fixed and mobile sensing applications.