Integration Infrastructure in Wireless/Wired Heterogeneous Industrial Network System

As various wired Field-bus systems are still pervasive in present industrial and factory environments, it is very unlikely that wireless communications will be able to replace current wired Field-bus systems in many industrial environments completely. The integration of wireless and wired segment (networks) was studied in this paper. Three integration patterns on application layer, physical layer, data-link layer were discussed respectively. Then, an industrial network-oriented universal conversion infrastructure of heterogeneous network is proposed. In light of features of industrial Field-bus data communication and special requirements for real-time properties for the automation in factory environment, a mid-layer model (DCM) is presented which uses united data reflection zone instead of conventional frame forwarding. Through the building and flexible configuration of DCM modules for different wired or wireless segments, seamless access of terminal nodes of a variety of wireless and cable networks cab be realized, and data cooperation could be attained.