Neha Joshi
Independent Researcher
India
Abstract
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have played a transformative role in industrial automation by enabling distributed sensing, monitoring, and control in harsh and inaccessible environments. This manuscript examines the state of WSNs for industrial automation up to 2018, prior to the widespread hype surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT). The paper begins with an overview of core WSN technologies—low-power transceivers, multihop routing protocols, and energy harvesting techniques—followed by a review of key industrial case studies in sectors such as manufacturing, process control, and condition-based maintenance. We then identify prominent research gaps related to reliability under harsh electromagnetic conditions, deterministic communication for real-time control, and scalable energy management. A methodology section details our comparative evaluation framework based on network lifetime, latency, throughput, and fault tolerance metrics. Results from simulations and field deployments illustrate the trade-offs between communication protocols (e.g., ZigBee, WirelessHART, ISA100.11a) and hardware platforms (e.g., Mica2, TelosB, IRIS). Our findings reveal opportunities for protocol enhancements, adaptive duty-cycling, and integrated scheduling to meet stringent industrial requirements. The conclusion synthesizes lessons learned and outlines future research directions, emphasizing backward compatibility and pragmatic design for legacy automation systems. Ten core references up to 2018 provide a foundation for engineering researchers and practitioners in industrial WSN deployment.
Keywords
Wireless sensor networks, industrial automation, multihop routing, energy harvesting, deterministic communication, process control, condition-based maintenance, ZigBee, WirelessHART, ISA100.11a
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