NIST Hosts Industry Meeting on Advanced Technologies and Use Cases for High-performance Industrial Wireless Systems

The NIST Industrial Wireless Systems team held an industry meeting on September 12, 2024, to facilitate discussions on “Advanced Technologies and Use Cases for High-performance Industrial Wireless Systems.”  The NIST Industrial Wireless Systems Technical Interest Group (IWSTIG) meeting was organized and led by NIST’s Rick Candell and Kang Lee with support from Mohamed Hany and Karl Montgomery.  Google’s Preston Marshall provided an engaging keynote on “5G and Beyond for Advanced Manufacturing and Warehousing Environments.”  Other presentations centered on functional safety over deterministic wireless networks, AI-assisted channel estimation and prediction, 5G open-source initiatives, standardization of wireless network performance evaluation though IEEE P3388, and the future of industrial wireless for mission critical applications.  Presenters included Zhibo Pang (ABB), Stefano Scanzio (CNR Italy), Pablo Angueira (University of the Basque Country), Ted Schnaare (Emerson Automation), Paul Vineyard (OLTC), Nicolas Tondre (Firecell), Mohamed Hany (NIST), and Rick Candell (NIST).

Wireless communications technology is emerging as an enabling technology for facilitating industrial communications by providing flexibility and economical installation costs compared to wired solutions. However, concerns exist about reliability and latency in industrial wireless networks. Deployments of wireless networks in industrial environments have experienced varying degrees of success.  These include industrial wireless technologies based upon IEEE 802.15.4 (Low-Rate Wireless Sensor Networks), IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.15.1 (BT/BLE), 3GPP (4/5/6G), and many others.  Industrial wireless environments can be harsh, demanding, and quite different from homes and offices. Moreover, mission-critical industrial applications are distinctive, where data loss and retransmissions cannot be tolerated. To make wireless a reality in factory and industrial environments, it is essential to analyze various industrial scenarios, including the physical environments, the communication requirements, and any possible wireless aggressors.

This industry meeting provided an opportunity for members of the NIST Industrial Wireless Systems Technical Interest Group to develop a deeper understanding of current trends and concerns pertaining to industrial wireless communications, measurement techniques and standardization with one of the principal goals being to support industry with economical, high-volume deployments.  To subscribe to the NIST IWSTIG mailing list, send mail to iwstig+subscribe [at] list.nist.gov (iwstig+subscribe[at]list[dot]nist[dot]gov).