Lifecycle management related model approach for wireless automation

Although there are already many applications using wireless communication in industrial automation those wireless solutions (WS) are not yet fully integrated into the life cycle (LC) process of automation systems. Since several wireless technologies are candidates to fulfill given automation communication requirements it is almost impossible for automation engineers to select the appropriate solution, to plan wireless solutions, or to perform diagnosis or fault analysis of a wireless network. Wireless specialists are necessary for each potential WS. To overcome this problem a project was started to develop information models for each phase of the life cycle (LC) in order to support automation engineers recording or accessing the appropriate information when required. This paper introduces the objective and the approach of this project.