The Industrial Wi-Fi Shop Podcast – Ep. 5 Wireless Design – Industrial vs. Enterprise Roundtable part 1
Mar 26, 2024
Wireless network design can be very challenging. However there are distinct differences in design depending on the environment. This is part one of a round table discussion of four wireless engineers, two who work primarily in the enterprise realm and two from the world of industry and manufacturing.
The discussion covers the differences and similarities across multiple topics, including:
Assessment tools
Environmental challenges
Location Access
Safety
Design
Reporting
Project adversities
We discuss many of our favorite tools, most of which are linked below:
The Industrial Wi-Fi Shop Podcast – Ep. 4 Industrial Wireless Protocols: WirelessHART and ISA100
Feb 26, 2024
WirelessHART and ISA100.11a are two wireless protocols designed specifically for industrial applications. Based on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standards and utilizing Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, these protocols provide robust and reliable low data rate wireless communications for a variety of industrial sensors and sometimes even controls.
While I dont have captures of these two protocols specifically, I do have several examples of what Frequency Hoping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and DSSS looks like in spectrum analysis. The images below are examples of FHSS and DSSS from several different device deployments. While these are FHSS and DSSS, they are running on top of proprietary protocols as opposed to IEEE 802.15.4.
FHSS wireless camera system
The image above is from a deployment of Lorex LW2232 wireless cameras utilizing FHSS across the 2.4GHz spectrum. The deployment consisted of twelve cameras and transceivers all transmitting at their full power capacity of 16dBm. As you can see, at these levels they were disrupting the coexisting Wi-Fi due to the high utilization.
DSSS Phoenix Contact RAD900 Wireless IO
This is a capture I took in my lab while testing several Phoenix Contact RAD900 Wireless IO devices. These run on a proprietary protocol on 900MHz, but still used DSSS for frequency transmission. You can see the communication is very organized and while there is a lot of data going back and forth, the actual bursts of communication are very small. This helps dramatically with contention for airtime.
DSSS Banner Engineering 900MHz sensors
This capture was from a network of Banner Engineering 900MHz sensors around a waste water treatment facility. Though there were over twenty devices in the network, you can see that there is plenty of airtime and no contention. Though Banner uses proprietary protocols, DSSS keeps the data flowing reliably and continuously.
If you would like to learn more about WirelessHART, check out these links:
The Industrial Wi-Fi Shop Podcast – Ep. 3 RF, Antennas & Microwave Burritos
Feb 08, 2024
Jim Palmer came into the shop to talk about Radio Frequency (RF), how antennas work and propagate RF energy. Jim packs quite a bit of knowledge into this conversation and I had to take notes!
The conversation gets fairly deep into Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power, or EIRP, which is the total radiated power from a transmitter antenna times the numerical directivity of the antenna in the direction of the receiver, or the power delivered to the antenna times the antenna numerical gain.
At one point in the discussion, we talk about the Tacoma Narrows bridge and how it collapsed due to a phenomena known as harmonics. Here is a link to a video of that event: https://youtu.be/j-zczJXSxnw?si=zCXid0Pr8ZJ97knu .
The Industrial Wi-Fi Shop Podcast – Ep. 2 Industrial Wireless Safety & Mobility
Jan 15, 2024
Episode 2 brings Jeremy Baker into the shop to talk with me about industrial wireless safety and mobility. From theme park rides to heavy industrial equipment, we cover a lot of material so be sure to pay attention.
The Industrial Wi-Fi Shop Podcast – Ep. 1 Industrial Wireless Assessments
Jan 04, 2024
In this first episode, I joined by Justin Shade from Phoenix Contact to discuss the importance of wireless assessments in industrial and manufacturing and how they should be an essential part of any new wireless projects.