A Review of Industrial Wireless Communications, Challenges, and Solutions: A Cognitive Radio Approach

Abstract

Integral and crucial to performance of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), and specifically industrial wireless sensor network (IWSN) is stable, robust, reliable, and ubiquitous communications system. Though, wired communications system is suitable for industrial communications and is resilient to shadowing and multipath fading effects of industrial-WSN environments, yet its wireless counterpart is a much preferred industrial communications technology due to reduced cost and high flexibility which it offers in comparison to wired communications. However, overcrowding of the industrial, scientific, and medical band, where IWSN is deployed together with other heterogeneous technologies, as well as resultant scarcity of usable frequency spectrum has restrained exclusive application of wireless technology for industrial communications. Nonetheless, cognitive radio (CR) has ability to increase spectrum utilization efficiency and channel capacity for industrial wireless communications (IWC) through opportunistic/dynamic spectrum access (DSA) technique. In this review article, we examine how DSA can benefit IWC through exploitation of new perspectives of white space definitions in the licensed bands as well as unlicensed bands. While discussing the potential of DSA for IWC, we have considered the unique characteristics of IWC as well as technical challenges and issues imposed by industrial-WSN. Accordingly, we have suggested and proffered appropriate CR-based solutions in mitigating some of the challenges where necessary.