IEEE802.11 sensor networking [wireless network]

Abstract

This paper deals with a smart transducer wireless network for industrial applications. Thanks to its high popularity, a solution based on IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) is adopted. A master slave network organization is proposed to allow several sensors to be connected with generic Wi-Fi devices, like PCs: a proprietary protocol over IP/UDP has been also developed. Finally, some low cost prototypes have been build to test the network behaviour and to show its feasibility. Experimental results prove its applicability in a soft real-time industrial context.