(614) 755-5091
https://analynk.com
Analynk Wireless manufactures hazardous area wireless access point enclosures and hazardous area wireless antennas. Analynk is also a certified UL508A panel manufacturer providing high quality control panels to Ohio and surrounding areas. For more information, visit the Analynk website here or call 614-755-5091.
Implementation of complex monitoring and control processes by industrial automation systems in the chemical industries, power plants, oil refineries, and water delivery systems are typical. The industrial networks for process automation at these sites typically encompass broad areas, with highly dense networks with hundreds or thousands of nodes.
The harsh industrial environment presents several obstacles for wireless communications, the most significant of which are dependability, fault-tolerance, and low latency. Unpredictable changes in temperature, humidity, vibrations, and pressure and the presence of highly reflective (metal) items and electromagnetic noise make industrial surroundings stressful.
In these installations, thousands of devices provide measured values (such as temperature, pressure, flow, and location) to actuators that control processes and servers that coordinate the manufacturing steps. Wiring is often tricky and expensive, particularly in combustible and explosive areas (for example, in the presence of flammable gases in an oil refinery.) Remote or inaccessible places are difficult to reach, and mobile nodes can only be connected intermittently. Even though the amount of data is relatively low in an industrial application, dependability and latency are crucial, and complete data delivery in real-time is a must.
Key constraints that hinder the actual deployment of wireless networks in such settings are battery capacity and device power consumption. Communication and power wires, ideally, can be eliminated to provide a completely wireless system. To that end, the devices should be energy efficient and capable of running for years on a single charge from a battery. Furthermore, wireless networks bring logical benefits to maintenance and commissioning, such as "plug-and-play" automation systems to reduce downtime and speed up tests, as well as "hot-swapping" malfunctioning modules.
Upward of 27 billion devices connect as part of the massive confluence of technologies, networks, protocols, standards, and devices known as the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is a network of computers and devices that capture and exchange vast volumes of data, which is then sent to a cloud-based service, aggregated with other data, and then exchanged with end-users to provide valuable insights. IoT is growing automation in homes, classrooms, shops, and several other industries and industries.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) leverages many of the same technologies like IoT and applies them to the industrial world's diverse needs. IIoT is a category of technologies that capture and distribute data inside historically isolated industrial devices, contained in Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems and other Industrial Control Systems (ICS). They track and control essential industrial infrastructure, including factories, power plants, water systems, ports, other industrial installations, and some U.S.
Sensitive industrial infrastructure owners and operators are rapidly implementing IIoT technologies to maximize the development and distribution of goods and services, increase performance, improve safety and minimize costs. IIoT sensors and devices provide real-time monitoring and control to operators. They also collect data on system output, further improving plant performance or production performance. For example, smart tools used on a production line could allow a company to monitor and evaluate its production process. Real-time production data could provide insight into plant conditions, discover additional plant capability, and predictive analytics can help detect corrosion within the refinery pipe.
These threats to modules, firmware and software, wireless networking, and most devices must include mitigation at the computer and system engineering level. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the European Union Agency for Cyber Security (ENISA) seek to guide the government and industry with some of their voluntary attempts to describe IIoT cybersecurity. Industry is collaborating with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and other manufacturers to establish reasonable safety capabilities in IIoT products to avoid burdensome regulations that are likely to quickly get out of date as the IIoT industry is vast and changing much faster compared to government legislation.
Key Concerns
An excellent 2020 publication from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine on industrial wireless technologies:
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) refers to sensors, controllers, actuators, tools, and other devices interconnected with industrial computer applications, including manufacturing and energy management. This connectivity facilitates collecting, distributing, and reviewing data, potentially promoting productivity and quality improvements, and other economic benefits. The IIoT is an evolution of a distributed control system (DCS) that uses cloud computing to refine and optimize process controls, allowing for a greater degree of automation.
In the manufacturing industries, the term industrial internet of things refers to the IoT industrial subset. Improved efficiency, analytics, and the workplace's transformation are future advantages of the industrial Internet of things.
While connectivity and data acquisition is essential for IIoT, they are not the ultimate objectives but rather the basis and path to something larger. Predictive maintenance is an "easier" application of all technology related to current asset and management systems. Smart maintenance systems will minimize unnecessary downtime and improve efficiency, estimated to save up to 12 percent over planned repairs, reduce total maintenance costs by up to 30 percent, and eliminate breakdowns by up to 70 percent.
Wireless connections are increasingly used in IIoT deployments to boost industrial data services' operational communication, such as capturing vast process data, interacting with industrial robots, and monitoring machines/parts/products on and beyond the factory floor.
Industrial users typically play a much more decisive and active role in deciding wireless services in their plants than personal customers in the wireless market. A collaboration between operational technology (OT) engineers, information technology (IT) device architects, and wireless network planners is inherently a wireless system architecture for IIoT applications. The newly founded 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA) has provided some inputs from industrial manufacturers in the form of white papers.
There are no one-size-fits-all wireless solutions for industrial use cases as the service requirements, and operating environments may differ vastly from one another. Earlier industrial wireless networks provided connectivity in each single vertical manufacturing sector. As a result, the solutions that function well under the specific service requirements and operating conditions may only yield limited value in different use cases. Wireless success in more emerging IIoT applications will require wireless networks to facilitate the broader and deeper digital contact with industrial systems and provide flexible interfaces and quick deployments while keeping data integrity.
For more information, contact Analynk Wireless.
Many chemical, food processing, refining, mining, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical applications need high-performance Wi-Fi access in potentially explosive environments. Whether it's device telemetry, network access, site-to-site networking, or unified communications, these applications demand the highest Wi-Fi performance possible in the harshest environments.
Some Wi-Fi access points are designed for direct use in explosive conditions without an external protective enclosure. Others are intended for use in non-explosive environments and controlled within a specialized housing specified for that use. The former approach is cost-effective when the underlying technology that drives the equipment is developed, reliable, and unlikely to need an upgrade for years; IoT velocity, positioning, pressure, and temperature sensors fall into that class.
The latter solution – using an outer enclosure – is the most realistic as the underlying wireless technology is rapidly evolving. That's because an explosion-proof enclosure's purchase and installation costs can reflect 4 to 20 times the access point's price. Swapping the access point out, leaving the protective enclosure intact, is significantly less costly than installing a brand new enclosure for some technology upgrades.
The Wi-Fi industry has changed from 802.11n to 802.11ac Wave 1 to 802.11ac Wave 2 in under ten years. Just as no consumer will purchase a new truck based on a 10-year-old design, nor will they consider installing technology-based 802.11n access points from 2007. They will at least use 802.11ac Wave 1, particularly in industrial environments, due to the outstanding multipath performance of 802.11ac in metal presence.
Using standard amortization rates, a consumer wanting to keep up-to-date with the new Wi-Fi technology will upgrade equipment approximately once every four years. If we believe that an access point designed for harsh environments has a list price of $1,500, and with the related Class 1 Division 2 enclosure may list for $3,500. The installation alone (excluding the set-up and commissioning of access points) costs $2,500. In this scenario, buyers can save $4,500 for each access point technology switch when mounting in a hazardous area access point enclosure.
For more information about hazardous area wireless access point enclosures, contact Analynk by calling (614) 755-5091 or visit their website at https://analynk.com.
The laws of physics limit wireless networks. These laws set the boundaries of how much information can be transmitted. Presented below are some key challenges of a wireless communication system.
The constraints on wireless radio wave transmission are the physical distance, obstacles, and fundamental wavelengths. Obstacles such as metal and concrete severely attenuate radio waves. Higher frequency systems generally have better throughput performance but with less range than systems operating in the lower frequency bands.
Wireless communications systems transmit information over finite resources within the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. EM spectrum is a limited natural resource divided according to the laws and regulations.
Bandwidth is defined in terms of bits per second and constrained by the communications channel's physics. Realizable bandwidth rarely meets the advertised data rates as channel conditions introduce error. Competition for the channel by other devices on the wireless network creates a delay in channel access.
In any communication system, transmitting and receiving data takes time. A software program must provide data for transmission, format, modulate, and share it in a wireless device. The electromagnetic waves then take time to spread through space at the speed of light, ultimately arriving at the receiver. Additional time is then required to detect the signal, reconstruct the signal into valid information, and finally deliver it to the client software application. Latency is defined as the actualized duration of information transmission from one application to another within an industrial control system.
A wireless network is designed to support a certain number of devices. Scale is an essential factor of industrial wireless networks as it influences the amount of time expected for devices to utilize the finite resources of the wireless channel. Some wireless systems, such as WirelessHART employ scheduling to assure channel availability.
Security within any industrial wireless deployment, mainly those considered mission-critical, should always be considered in conjunction with the wireless network design and application goals. Security holistically addresses data confidentiality, integrity, and availability issues. Unlike a traditional office setting, data integrity and availability in industrial networks are more significant concerns. For most modern wireless networks, strong encryption is available and should be used inside the factory. To ensure wireless device authentication, authentication protocols should be used to verify access. Wireless networks are also vulnerable to transmission attacks, such as jamming. In mission-critical systems, wireless network isolation is recommended by frequency and distance.
The ability of a wireless network to support its intended operation is referred to as system availability. This is typically defined in terms of a percentage availability, such as 99.99%, for which it will stay operational. Attention should be placed on the robustness of devices within the network.
The physical environment usually impacts wireless communications with the presence of obstructions, reflections, and scattering. Such effects lead to multipath transmissions that may not have a direct line-of-sight (LOS) element at times. Industrial environments are more electrically noisy than office and home environments and present far more wireless transmission obstructions and disturbances. Moveable metal items such as forklifts and cranes, narrow aisles between metal shelves, and liquid tanks that can alternate propagation features are examples of this harsh environment. Moreover, depending on the frequency of the produced noise, electrical noise may affect wireless transmissions. Motors and solenoids provide examples of low-frequency noise sources. Arc-generating equipment can make higher-frequency electrical noise.
For wireless transmitters, repeaters, transmitters, antennas, and hazardous area access point enclosures, contact Analynk Wireless by calling (614) 755-5091 or visiting their website at https://analynk.com.
Hazardous area enclosures for wireless access point. (Analynk) |