Image Processing Reference
In-Depth Information
Data
generation
Hub
Wired Ethernet
802.11
802.11
Packet
sniffer
Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Zigbee
Zigbee
Data
reception
Hub
FIGURE .
Experimental setup for determining and investigating the wireless NCS performance.
23.6 Future Trends
As the rapid move toward networks in industrial automation continues, the process has now matured
to the point that a large portion of the migration is not just toward networks, but from one network
technology to another (e.g., the move to Ethernet everywhere as a consolidation effort, or the move to
wireless).heimmediateadvantagesofreducedwiringandimprovedreliabilityhavebeenaccepted
as fact in industry and are often significant enough by themselves (e.g., return-on-investment—ROI)
to justify the move to networked solutions. Further, with the advent of more detailed ROI calculators
such as that discussed in Section ., other networking advantages can be quantified. It is expected
that diagnostics network adoption will continue to lead the way in the overall network proliferation
trend, followed by control and then safety networks, but the ordering is driven by the stricter QoS
balancing requirements of the latter, not by any belief of higher ROI of the former. In fact, in gauging
the criticality of control and safety with respect to diagnostics, it is conceivable that significantly
higher ROI may be achievable in the migration to control and especially safety networking. However,
even with diagnostics networks, the possibilities and benefits of e-Diagnostics and (with control)
e-Manufacturing are only beginning to be explored.
Looking to the future, the most notable trend appearing in industry is the move to wireless net-
works at all levels []. [].This is not to say that wireless will replace wired in all applications, but rather
the traditional barriers to wireless implementation (e.g., technology, security, reliability, etc.) will be
lowered. This will allow the significant benefits of wireless to be realized, such as further reduction
of the volume of wiring needed (although often power is still required), enabling of the placement of
sensors in difficult locations, and enabling the placement of sensors on moving parts such as on tool
tips that rotate at several thousand RPMs. Issues with the migration to wireless include interference
between multiple wireless networks, security, and reliability and determinism of data transmission.
The anticipated benefit in a number of domains (including many outside of manufacturing) is driving
innovation that manufacturing in general should be able to leverage to address many of these issues.
However, the determinism issue will be difficult to overcome because manufacturing is not a market
driver in the typical application domains of most wireless network technologies.
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