Wireless requirements and challenges in Industry 4.0

Abstract

The next generation of industrial advancement which is referred as Industry 4.0 aims to inter-connect and computerize the traditional industrys such as manufacturing. The objective in Industry 4.0 is to make the factories smart enough in terms of improved adaptability, resource efficiency as well as the improved integration of supply and demand processes between the factories. Wireless communication will play a key role in enabling the Industry 4.0 systems and technologies. In this paper we focus the discussion on some of the key wireless communication challenges that will need to be met for the Industry 4.0 era. We look at how the 5 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">th</sup> generation of communication standard may address these requirements. For machine to machine communication the three main design criterions that can be considered are latency, longevity and the reliability of communication. We take an example of WiFi communication, and benchmark it against the requirements, so as to emphasize the improvements required in wireless protocols.