An IEEE 802.11 protocol test-bed in industrial environments using personal computing devices

Abstract

IEEE 802.11 is being currently considered to develop telecommunications infrastructures in industrial environments. However, in such environments there may exist a high level of electromagnetic fields (EMF) contamination, due to the machinery in use. Wireless LANs are sensitive to this type of hazard, and therefore the performance of the protocols may be affected inside the industrial facilities. In this paper we conduct a study of the wireless link performance in these industrial scenarios, using personal computing devices. Such equipments will be likely used by employees rather than conventional computers. Since the results do not characterize the environment itself, but the set of environment and hardware, a proper measurement test-bed must include direct measurements with these devices. Besides, due to limitations in these equipments, a specific protocol to measure pairs of packet error probability and latency is also developed. Results reveal a significant linear dependency between both magnitudes, and a large correlation coefficient in the measurements under high EMF activity at mid-large ranges (distances greater than 5 meters)