Smart factories

Smart factories and industrial IoT

Industrial IoT (IIoT) is enabling the next industrial revolution – Industry 4.0 – with its demand for highly reliable, secure, low-latency communications.

Wireless technologies are driving the next industrial revolution, taking productivity and efficiency to new levels. Manufacturing is becoming more intelligent, flexible and dynamic. Workflows, supply chains and business processes are being improved through self-optimization and autonomous decision-making, leveraging big data analytics and deep learning.

The growing demand for flexibility drive the need to replace wired factory floor communication by wireless alternatives, and new applications like tool tracking or safety wearables require ubiquitous connectivity in the factory.

As result, wireless connectivity is becoming even more business and mission critical, leading to very strict requirements with respect to reliability, latency and security. Today's off-the-shelf wireless technologies will almost certainly not meet all these requirements. The next generations of wireless technologies such as 5G or Wi-Fi 6/7 will become crucial. Reliable testing of RF performance, interference impact, conformance with standards and regulations as well as latency and power consumption will play an important role.

RF performance and coverage of IoT devices

RF performance and coverage of IoT devices

Very strict coverage requirements and the direct impact of the RF performance on critical performance parameters call for smart testing: IoT applications where devices have to operate under difficult coverage conditions with very specific performance requirements require comprehensive testing of the final device design under real-world conditions in various operational modes.

Test consideration for low latency communication

The one-way end-to-end communication latency is a critical performance parameter for the majority of IoT applications. The typical requirements range from minutes for environmental sensors or smart meters to less than 100 ms for voice communication or to less of one millisecond in factory automation.

Wireless technologies behind smart factories and IIoT

WLAN/Wi-Fi

Connecting homes, offices and hotspots

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Bluetooth

Beyond wearables

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NB-IoT

Cellular LPWAN

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LTE-M

LTE-M – the new GSM

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5G

5G

Optimizing the IIoT and more

Webinar: Wireless IIoT - Making factories smart and flexible

On-demand

Webinar: Wireless IIoT - Making factories smart and flexible

Watch our new webinar and find out the basics of the wireless Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) using wireless technologies from Bluetooth to 5G for industrial environments. The webinar also offers information on important challenges of IIoT such as low and deterministic latency, as well as ways to master them. Additionally, it will demonstrate how dedicated measurement solutions can help to understand and optimize key performance characteristics.

Educational resources

Free Internet of Things webinars

Insights into IoT trends, related technologies and major upcoming test challenges

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Video series "Let's talk IoT"

Hot IoT topics, major test challenges and practical test solutions

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Rohde & Schwarz at MWC 2019 Barcelona

Mobile device and mobile network testing solutions focusing on 5G NR, IoT, WLAN and connected cars.

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White papers and application notes

Details on IoT technologies, related test challenges and practical solutions

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Related topics

IoT testing

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5G testing

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Mobile device testing

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