Design of Channel Measurement Guidelines for Characterization of Wireless Industrial Environments

Providing reliable and timely communication in wireless industrial systems requires careful design of error control schemes able to tackle the bit error patterns typically occurring in these environments. As most error control schemes target some specific characteristics of a wireless channel, the selection of channel model is crucial for proper performance assessment. There are a number of widely used channel models, but the question of the most appropriate choice of model for industrial environments still remains largely open. Not many indoor measurement campaigns have focused on industrial environments with their own specific characteristics. In this paper we present a set of measurement guidelines aiming to characterize industrial environments such that suitable channel models can be selected to properly evaluate error control schemes targeting reliable and timely wireless communications in industrial environments.