Performance Controllable Industrial Wireless Networks

Book excerpt: With the rapid proliferation of information and communications technology, industrial automation has undergone a sweeping transformation toward intelligent manufacturing. Wireless communication is widely considered to be one of the key technologies enabling intelligent manufacturing. On one hand, deterministic communication with high reliability and low latency is typically required in industrial automation applications. On the other hand, wireless communication in industrial settings is hindered by strictly limited communication resources and many other factors which mainly derive from the shared and error-prone nature of the wireless channels used. The limited communication resources and harsh channel conditions pose considerable challenges for reliable, real-time data transmission in industrial wireless networks. Resource optimization methods are vital to ensuring the deterministic performance of industrial wireless networks. Traditional resource optimization methods adopt the isolated resource optimization methods for each protocol layer, which is inherently local-optimal and leads performance uncontrollable. To focus on “Performance Controllable Industrial Wireless Networks”, this book presents thejoint resource optimization methods across multiple protocol layers for industrial wireless networks; reviews recent, major advances; and discusses the practical implementations of the proposed methods. The joint resource optimization methods discussed here will greatly benefit scientists and researchers in the areas of industrial automation and Industrial Internet of Things. To gain the most from this book, readers should have a fundamental grasp of wireless communication, scheduling theory, and convex optimization.