Wireless networked control system using NDIS-based four-layer architecture for IEEE 802.11b

Abstract

This paper presents the feasibility of using the IEEE 802.11b protocol for wireless networked control systems (NCSs). The IEEE 802.11b protocol is considered to be not suitable for industrial networking because the medium access control method is contention-based CSMA/CA, which exhibits unstable performance with an unbounded delay distribution under heavy traffic. To avoid these limitations, we present a four-layer architecture for IEEE 802.11b based on the network driver interface specification (NDIS) combined with a virtual scheduling algorithm. We compare the performance of NDIS-based wireless NCS to that of a conventional wireless NCS. Experimental results show that the NDIS-based four-layer architecture for IEEE 802.11b is a very promising alternative for wireless industrial networking.