Coexistence issues in wireless networks for factory automation

The adoption of dense industrial wireless network technologies in industrial plants is mandatorily paired with the development of methods and tools for connectivity prediction. These can be used to certify the quality (or reliability) of network information flow in industrial scenarios characterized by harsh propagation environments. Connectivity prediction must account for possibly coexisting heterogeneous radio access technologies as part of the internet of things (IoT) paradigm and easily allow post layout validation steps. The goal of the paper is to provide a practical evaluation of relevant coexistence problems between IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.11 networks, adopted here as widely used industry standards. Two different scenarios are tested with different radio platforms. Experimental results highlight the tolerable interference levels and sensitivity thresholds under different channel overlapping scenarios.