On the feasibility to deploy mobile industrial applications using wireless communications

• Extensive wireless industrial measurement campaign.
• Demonstrated the feasibility to deploy industrial mobile sensing applications.
• Performance evaluation of mobile IEEE 802.15.4 sensing communications.
• Experimental QoS evaluation of IEEE 802.11/WiFi, IEEE 802.16/WiMAX and HSDPA.
• Deployment and testing of three industrial safety-related use cases.

Wireless communications can facilitate the deployment of novel industrial applications to improve productivity or health and safety conditions. Health and safety applications require mobile solutions capable to operate under harsh propagation conditions at low cost and energy consumption. This paper presents the results of an extensive measurement campaign that demonstrate the feasibility to deploy industrial mobile sensing applications with reliable wireless connectivity levels using short-range IEEE 802.15.4. The campaign also analyses the capability of various wireless technologies to provide the throughput levels necessary for wireless local data distribution and backhaul connectivity.