Real-time Alarm Dissemination in Mobile Industrial Networks

More and more mobile robots are used within modern production facilities. The interconnection of these robots and their connection to other systems is a major focus, when looking at trends like Industry 4.0. However, industrial environments are very challenging for any communications network, that utilizes wireless transmissions. High mobility, changing propagation channels, interference and highly utilized bandwidth are common occurrences. The dissemination of real-time alarm messages to mobile clients of an industrial network is a challenging use case under these circumstances.The often requested real-time guarantee for message delivery cannot be given in such a dynamic and unpredictable environment. Real-Time Alarm Dissemination System (RTADS) is implemented, which offers the following compromise: It can either transmit the message within a guaranteed time-slot or, inform the receiver, that the real-time connection is lost within the same time-slot. The system is additionally able to implement such connection in complex multi-hop networks with minimal impact on other communication.The RTADS was implemented and tested in different environments. Successful alarm transmissions within 100ms for up to 10 re-transmissions/relays were observed.