Digital & Communication Technology
Increasing industrial IoT reliability with deterministic Wi-Fi 6/6E
Co-authored by members of the IIoT Working Group at the Wireless Broadband Alliance I
ndustrial environments like factories, manufacturing plants, warehouses, oil and gas, to name a few, are experiencing a revolution with the introduction of new connectivity technologies that bring efficiency, reliability and make it possible to connect mission critical systems to smart edge or cloud-based systems using artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, wireless connectivity is an integral part of the industrial networking landscape because it enables mobility, provides scalable connectivity, and reduces the wiring costs. Wi-Fi is the main wireless technology used in indoor environments, is widely deployed, and delivers the security, capacity and low latency needed by a vast number of industrial usages. Recent advances in Wi-Fi technology and newly available spectrum in the 6 GHz band have enabled Wi-Fi to support even more stringent applications which demand low deterministic latency and high reliability, such as those of IIoT. In this article, the Wireless Broadband Alliance provides an overview of key industrial networking use cases and the capabilities available in Wi-Fi to address them.
Industrial use cases and requirements
Autonomous mobile robot (AMR): Autonomous mobile robot (AMR) and automated ground vehicle (AGV) platforms are utilized by factories, warehouses, and logistics businesses. These mobile devices are used to carry and deliver parts, products, and materials from a variety of sources and destinations be it inside a building or outside on a loading dock. Both types of robots are increasingly equipped with onboard sensors (radar, lidar, optical, etc.) to detect the platform’s environment in real-time and use actuators (arms, conveyor, etc.) to assist in moving materials to/from the platform. In addition, some platforms may also have onboard location/positioning technologies.
36 December/January 2023 Components in Electronics
The latency requirements (sensor to actuator delay), throughput (sensor upload) and other requirements are shown (right): Safety control systems such as remote controls/HMI for industrial machines allow the user direct control over the operation of what may be dangerous machinery. As such, responsiveness to controls, especially STOP buttons, needs to be near instantaneous (<1m) and as reliable as a wire (which effectively Wi-Fi replaces).
In accordance with its safety function, the controller may need to know position or range with respect to the machine it controls to ensure the user has not “wandered off” and is no longer considered to be operating the machine. In such cases, the machine might initiate an auto shutdown if the controller is >10m from it with an uncertainty of <1m.
These requirements are:
Value to business– Convenience, flexibility, and costs (cabling)
Typical technical requirements – Latency < 1-10ms; Reliability Ultra high (safety)
Extended Reality (XR):
Augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR)/mixed reality (XR) can be utilised to enable applications such as walk-by health
Value to business: Essential connectivity
Logistics (e.g., warehousing) Manufacturing
Typical technical requirements: Latency < 10-20ms (+/- 1 ms)
Throughput > 100Mb/s (UL) – on-board sensors Speed <50km/h
Wi-Fi - Wi-Fi handoff - no packet loss Location: Wi-Fi, UWB, LIDAR (SLAM) Multi-access indoor Wi-Fi to outdoor 5G transition (public/private slice via ATSSS)
monitoring combining an on-screen video feed with overlaid contextual machine information on a tablet. This would provide the operator with real-time sensor and control information. This could be extended to allow operators to receive process instructions via AR enabled safety glasses. Although AR/MR is not as data intensive as full VR, latency must be
Value to business:
Operational efficiency Flexibility
Remote control/training (VR) Sensor data overlay
low to allow the user experience to be fluid (typically <10-100ms depending on the speed of the AR system). An emerging application is virtual reality (VR) based machine remote control over Wi-Fi. This needs to be seamless and requires high levels of resilience to meet user requirements. The requirements for XR are (below):
Typical technical requirements:
End to end latency < 10 ms (not critical) Multi-XR user co-ordination
High throughput up to 100 Mb/s
Mobility/handoff (not critical) Reliability (not safety)
Figure 1: Wired-Wireless Network Architecture
Networking guidelines End-to-End Architecture:
Most Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards have been employed over wired Ethernet links. Cabled/wired connections restrict mobility on the factory floor, leading to a demand for the adoption of wireless connectivity which allows a dynamic industrial setting by enabling flexibility and mobility. Figure 1 shows a typical wired-wireless industrial network architecture.
Wi-Fi:
Wi-Fi technology has been continuously evolving over the past 20 years. The current generation, Wi-Fi 6/6E, is based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard amendment and introduces new features that equip Wi-Fi
www.cieonline.co.uk
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