It's not hard to understand why many manufacturers are champing at the bit to deploy wireless networks in their plants. Freed from the need to run expensive and inflexible physical wires, manufacturers deploying wireless networks, many believe, will be able to deploy more sensors, dramatically increasing their visibility into plant operations. Moreover, wireless offers the ability to easily reconfigure and move production operations without the need to rewire.
But such potential benefits, compelling as they are, don't mean manufacturers are willing to cut wireless technology any slack in the reliability department. Before they start deploying wireless networks in their plants — and particularly before they begin using the technology for critical control applications — manufacturers want assurances that wireless networks can deliver data as reliably and accurately as wired networks or even point-to-point connections.
"They need to know they can trust the data coming over these networks," says Bob Karschnia, vice president of technology at Emerson Process Management. "They need wireless to be 99.9% reliable."
But many manufacturers have their doubts about the reliability of wireless networks and their ability to guarantee delivery of accurate, high-quality data. A recent survey of 500 manufacturers conducted by the ISA standards organization and CMC Associates, a consulting firm, found that data reliability is the top concern of manufacturers considering wireless networks, ahead of security and sensor battery life.