IO-Link Wireless for IEC-Approval

The 5th generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks (5G) is currently being deployed at a large scale. In addition to the expansion of public 5G networks, (private) 5G campus networks are also set up in many areas. However, in parallel with the development of 5G, numerous other wireless solutions have also evolved, primarily using unlicensed frequency bands. In addition to various versions of the consumer grade IEEE 802.11-based WLAN standards and Bluetooth, a number of specific wireless solutions for predominantly industrial data communication have been established. The advantages of these comparatively simpler, non-5G wireless technologies are lower price levels, higher availability of established products on the market, and improved energy efficiency, which often lead to a significant commercial success and justify their beneficial use. This contribution presents a hybrid campus wireless network infrastructure, which is intended to fulfill various requirements as a testbed, especially in the areas of automation, logistics and traffic. A focus is on wireless coexistence, functional safety requirements and functionalities in conjunction with the associated security for safety.

Modern production concepts generate a demand for reliable, energy-efficient, fast, and secure wireless communication solutions. Therefore, the current consumption should not increase substantially due to additional cryptographic operations. This paper shows a principle current measurement method that is exemplary of a transceiver for the IO-Link Wireless protocol. Low-pass filtering and single-sided amplitude spectrum analysis are used to evaluate the main information of the current measurement. An uncertainty estimation is realized using statistical measurement data and considering the measurement setup in order to approximate the combined standard uncertainty. The results show that the current consumption only increases slightly when using additional cryptographic operations. This can be measured with acceptable uncertainty.

Reverberation chambers (RCs) can be used as repeatable and shielded test environments for electromagnetic compatibility testing and performance evaluation of wireless com-munication devices, as they inherently emulate a Rician/Rayleigh fading environment. Loading a RC with radio frequency (RF) absorbing material leads to an increasing coherence bandwidth (CBW) of the radio channel within the RC, where the appropriate value can be tailored to specific test specifications. In this paper the CBW is directly measured by the wireless system under test. Measurements were carried out with different loadings and the link quality indication (LQI) was used to determine an appropriate RC loading.

Wireless networks support highly flexible manufacturing processes and are recognized as a crucial pillar towards the digitization of industrial production (automation). While 5G is currently being marketed as universal solution for future wireless communication, high density of sensor and actuator nodes in industrial manufacturing environments with respect to latency times and reliability, still represents an enormous technical challenge. In the field of production automation standards, IO-Link Wireless (IOLW) is already in operation offering energy-efficient and cost-effective solutions, even with battery-powered smart sensor devices. In this paper, the deterministic ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) features of 5G are combined with the outstanding performance characteristics of IOLW with respect to robustness and latency to realize even highly demanding safety applications in industrial environments.