Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs). It focuses on industrial systems and the requirements of IWSNs. The chapter discusses applications of IWSNs and research developments; different attributes of IWSNs and possible research potential for future developments. Research and development, and continuous improvements in IWSNs have resulted in their widespread usage across different industries. The cyber physical systems and digital twins have notable significance in industry 4.0, as they can assist in replication of virtual processes and virtualization of the functional systems to help improve the overall process and to make decentralized decisions. The applications of WSNs vary from sophisticated feedback control, emergency and safety to monitoring and data accumulation. Time division multiple access allows the devices to establish interference free communications. Since the information communications in tree topology is multi‐hop, failure in a link or key linking nodes can affect large network branches.