Industrial Communication Systems

53-1

53.1 Introduction

e world of industrial communications shows increasing interest toward wireless eldbuses, i.e., the

use

of

wireless

communications

to

interconnect

devices

at

eld

level

sensors;

actuators;

instruments;

controllers;

and

so

on

[W08,FFM07].

In

particular,

the

advent

of

hybrid

wired/wireless

networks

prom-

ises

to

greatly

improve

eciency

and

scalability.

However,

the

success

of

this

kind

of

solutions

will

depend

on the sta

ndardization

pro

cess

tha

t

ens

ures

mul

tivendor

com

patibility

and int

eroperability.

A

big

step

toward

the

development

of

a

truly

open

and

standard

solution

has

been

done

thanks

to

the

introduction

of

the