Ph.D. Forum Abstract: A Scalable Testbed Infrastructure for Embedded Industrial Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks

Abstract

At least since the terms Internet of Things, Factories of the Future or Industrial Internet gave distinction to the modern world of communication, there is a special need for efficient test- and debug tools targeting research and development of embedded wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSAN) in industrial automation technology and other non-consumer application areas in adverse environments. Those networks usually have tighter requirements on dependability, synchronization, and real-time capability as compared applications in environmental monitoring or home automation. For WSAN research and development, testbeds are a valuable tool as they enable controlled and repeatable operation under conditions close to reality. The contribution of this Ph.D. dissertation is to design, implement and set up a test environment for embedded industrial wireless sensor actuator networks, with special focus on energy constrained network nodes. This testbed should offer an previously unattained level of insight in timing characteristics of the network and the energy behavior of a single node. It allows to make statements about limitations of the deployed WSAN technology, or to compare different WSAN solutions in an automated manner. The uniqueness of this testbed setup is due to a scalable, affordable and maintainable organization both in software as well as the structure of the used hardware components.