Wireless Network Design for Emerging IIoT Applications: Reference Framework and Use Cases

Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) applications, featured with data-centric innovations, are leveraging the observability, control, and analytics, as well as the safety of industrial operations. In IIoT deployments, wireless links are increasingly used in improving the operational connectivity for industrial data services, such as collecting massive process data, communicating with industrial robots, and tracking machines/parts/products on the factory floor and beyond. Wireless system design for IIoT applications is inherently a joint effort among operational technology (OT) engineers, information technology (IT) system architects, and wireless network planners. In this paper, we propose a new reference framework for wireless system design in IIoT use cases. The framework presents a generic design process and identifies the key questions and tools of individual procedures. Specifically, we extract impact factors from distinct domains including industrial operations and environments, data service dynamics, and the IT infrastructure. We then map these factors into function clusters and discuss their respective impact on performance metrics and resource utilization strategies. Finally, discussions take place in four exemplary IIoT applications where we use the framework to identify wireless network issues and deployment features in the continuous process monitoring, discrete system control, mobile applications, and spectrum harmonization, respectively. The goals of this paper are twofold: 1) to assist OT engineers to better recognize wireless communication demands and challenges in their plants and 2) to help industrial IT specialists to come up with operative and efficient end-to-end wireless solutions to meet demanding needs in factory environments.