IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics

Guest Editorial – Special Section on Wireless Technologies in Factory and Industrial Automation - Part II;

Special Section Papers

Abstract: The adoption of wireless communication technologies in industrial environments for supporting (soft) real-time applications heavily depends on the ability to grant bounded response times for messages, at least from a probabilistic point of view. This aspect is particularly important in factory automation systems, where response times are considered much more significant than other performance indices, such as throughput, that are usually considered in different application areas. The ever increasing availability on the market of products and solutions based on the IEEE 802.11 standard and the introduction of the 802.11e amendment for enhancing the quality of service(QoS) and prioritizing traffic make this kind of communication technology interesting also for adoption in (loosely coupled)distributed control systems. This paper reports on some experimental measures and the related analysis that have been carried out on real 802.11g/enetworks for better understanding the statistical distribution of response times, and can be of help in characterizing these solutions when used to support non-critical real-time traffic.

A. Bonivento, C. Fischione, L. Necchi,, F. Pianegiani and A. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli

Abstract: We present a system level design methodology for clustered wireless sensor networks based on a semi-random communication protocol called SERAN, a mathematical model that allows to optimize the protocol parameters, and a network initialization and maintenance procedure. SERAN is a two-layer (routing and MAC) protocol. At both layers, SERAN combines a randomized and a deterministic approach. While the randomized component provides robustness over unreliable channels, the deterministic component avoids an explosion of packet collisions and allows our protocol to scale with network size. The combined result is a high reliability and major energy savings when dense clusters are used. Our solution is based on a mathematical model that characterizes performance accurately without resorting to extensive simulations. Thanks to this model, the user needs only to specify the application requirements in terms of end to- end packet delay and packet loss probability, select the intended hardware platform, and the protocol parameters are set automatically to satisfy latency requirements and optimize for energy consumption.

3. VTP-CSMA: A Virtual Token Passing Approach for Real-Time Communication in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networks

Abstract: Currently there is a trend towards the implementation of industrial communication systems using wireless networks. However, keeping up with the timing constraints of real-time traffic in wireless environments is a hard task. The main reason is that real-time devices must share the same communication medium with timing unconstrained devices. The VTP-CSMA architecture has been proposed to deal with this problem. It considers an unified wireless system in one frequency band, where the communication bandwidth is shared by real time and non real-time communicating devices. The proposed architecture is based on a Virtual Token Passing procedure (VTP) that circulates a virtual token among real-time devices. This virtual token is complemented by an underlying traffic separation mechanism that prioritizes the real-time traffic over the non real time traffic. This is one of the most innovative aspects of the proposed architecture, as most part of real-time communication approaches are not able to handle timing unconstrained traffic sharing the same communication medium. A ring management procedure for the VTP-CSMA architecture is also proposed, allowing real-time stations to adequately join/leave the virtual ring.

Regular Issue Papers

4. Overcoming Babbling-Idiot Faults in CAN networks: A Simple and Effective Bus Guardian Solution for the FlexCAN Architecture

Abstract: The paper is concerned with the issue of protecting CAN networks against the consequences of babbling-idiot faults such as unscheduled traffic generated by a faulty node that denies any other communication. A full solution of the problem would greatly enhance the dependability of the CAN networks, making them applicable to safety-critical systems. After explaining the weakness of the native CAN protocol in tolerating the babbling-idiot faults, the paper shows how the FlexCAN architecture is suitable to tolerate them effectively. To this aim, a simple bus guardian is proposed and tested. The results of the test are given in the paper.

Abstract: Coalition formation methods allow autonomous agents to join together in order to act as a coherent group in which they increase their individual gains by collaborating with each other. Although there are some research efforts toward coalition formation in multi-agent systems (MAS), such as game theory based approaches, these methods cannot be easily applied in real world scenarios. Based on a novel social reasoning theory namely transitive dependence theory, this work proposes two dynamic coalition formation algorithms for coalition formation: 1) without and-action dependence and 2) with and-action dependence respectively. While most related work addresses the problem of searching for the optimal coalition structure (CS), the proposed algorithms aim to find out the optimal coalitions for specific goals. Theoretical analysis and experimental results suggest that 1) the algorithm for coalition formation without and-action dependence is of polynomial complexity and is efficient, and 2) when the incidence rate of and-action dependence isn't high, the anytime algorithm for coalition formation with and-action dependence is also efficient although it has relatively high complexity (NP-complete).

Abstract: We focus on the data models for storing the data generated by RFID transactions and architectures for processing such data. We consider the supply chain comprised of the manufacturer, distributor, retailer and the consumer. We discuss details of the data generated by RFID transactions, and data models to store such data. Different organizations in the supply chain may use this data for different applications such as automatic product ordering, shelf replenishment and product recall. We present models to anticipate the data requirements generated by RFID transactions, and indicate how existing enterprise applications can be adapted to handle RFID data. The results presented in this paper will help a practitioner to (1) design and develop databases and applications for handling RFID data, and (2) significantly reduce the storage requirements of RFID data. Using the data architectures, we discuss two supply chain applications – product recall and shelf replenishment – in detail. We present analytical models for the cost and time required for shelf replenishment in a retail store.\

Copyright (c)1999-2010 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE. For information on obtaining permission, send a blank email message to . By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.

IEEE Industrial Electronics Society

IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics

Volume 3, Number 3, August 2007

Editorials

Special Section Papers

Regular Issue Papers