Raza, M., Aslam, N., Le-Minh, H., Hussain, S., Cao, Y. and Khan, N. M. (2017) A
critical analysis of research potential, challenges and future directives in industrial
wireless sensor networks. IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials,
(doi:10.1109/COMST.2017.2759725).
There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are
advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it.
http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/149414/
Deposited on: 9 October 2017
Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow
http://eprints.gla.ac.uk
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, JULY 2017 1
A Critical Analysis of Research Potential,
Challenges and Future Directives in Industrial
Wireless Sensor Networks
Mohsin Raza, Student Member, IEEE, Nauman Aslam, Member, IEEE, Hoa Le-Minh, Member, IEEE, Sajjad
Hussain, Member, IEEE, Yue Cao, Member, IEEE, and Noor Muhammad Khan, Senior Member, IEEE,
Abstract—In recent years, Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks
(IWSNs) have emerged as an important research theme with
applications spanning a wide range of industries including
automation, monitoring, process control, feedback systems and
automotive. Wide scope of IWSNs applications ranging from
small production units, large oil and gas industries to nuclear
fission control, enables a fast-paced research in this field. Though
IWSNs offer advantages of low cost, flexibility, scalability, self-
healing, easy deployment and reformation, yet they pose certain
limitations on available potential and introduce challenges on
multiple fronts due to their susceptibility to highly complex
and uncertain industrial environments. In this paper a detailed
discussion on design objectives, challenges and solutions, for
IWSNs, are presented. A careful evaluation of industrial systems,
deadlines and possible hazards in industrial atmosphere are dis-
cussed. The paper also presents a thorough review of the existing
standards and industrial protocols and gives a critical evaluation
of potential of these standards and protocols along with a detailed
discussion on available hardware platforms, specific industrial
energy harvesting techniques and their capabilities. The paper
lists main service providers for IWSNs solutions and gives insight
of future trends and research gaps in the field of IWSNs.
Index Terms—Automation, IEEE802.15.4e, energy harvest-
ing, IWSNs, ISA100.11a, MAC, TDMA, WirelessHART, WSNs,
Zigbee, 6LoWPAN, CSMA/CA, Castalia, Fieldbus, Ethernet,
Mesh, Tree, Star, Bus, Flat Architecture, Hierarchical,security,
congestion, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, UWB, Wasp Mote, Re-mote, Open-
Mote, SunSPOT, OMNeT++, MF, MiXiM, OPNET, Gradient,
Flat, Proactive routing, Data centric, PV,VLC, IoT, Cognitive
sensor networks, 6lo WG, OpenWSN.
I. INTRODUCTION
I
NDUSTRIES have always been under continuous im-
provements since the very beginning of the industrial era.
This gradual improvement is undoubtedly the outcome of
continuous technology development in this field, which has
kept the industries on its toes, looking for new methods for
improvement of productivity and operational efficiency. More
recently the continuous quality improvement has become the
Mohsin Raza and Hoa Le-Minh are with Department of Math, Physics
and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, e-mail:
(mohsinraza119@gmail.com, hoa.le-minh@northumbria.ac.uk)
Nauman Aslam and Yue Cao are with Department of Computer and
Information Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, e-mail: (nau-
man.aslam, yue.cao)@northumbria.ac.uk.
Sajjad Hussain is with the Department of Electronic and
Nanoscale Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK, e-mail:
Sajjad.Hussain@glasgow.ac.uk.
Noor M. Khan is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Cap-
ital University of Science and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan, e-mail:
noor@IEEE.org.
only mean to survive in the industrial race [1]. The past
few years have resulted in vast expansion in industries. This
expansion equipped the industries with the latest technology
at hand, to develop self-sufficient, spontaneous and com-
puterized work environments. Moreover, with the successful
incorporation of advance automation and process control, the
productivity and products’ quality has greatly improved [2].
These improvements, though highly impressive yet add high
complexity to the industrial processes and in some cases even
challenge the sufficiency of existing technologies to cope with
these rapid changes.
With the evolution of industries, new dimensions of research
have surfaced. In recent years, the IWSNs have emerged as an
efficient and cost effective solution for industrial automation
and process control [3], [4], [5], [6]. The advantages offered
by IWSNs have appeared to be a reason good enough to
persuade many industries to its adoption, especially in low
data rate applications [7], [8], [9]. One of the major factors
contributing to the popularity of IWSNs is its low installation
cost [10]. Compared to the cabling and maintenance costs of
wired networks (up to e4337 per meter [11]), the wireless
networking technologies offer a very small cost in fraction
of a euro for per meter of wireless connectivity. Apart from
the cost, the scalable nature of IWSNs make it an ideal
candidate for present as well as future dynamic industrial
environments [12], [13], [14], [15]. Furthermore, IWSNs offer
many advantages, including flexibility, self-organization, low
cost of installation, localized processing, interoperability and
easy deployment. Despite these significant benefits of the
technology, it suffers from constrained communication range,
small memory, delay, limited bandwidth, reliability issues,
limited battery capacity, security threats and interconnectivity
issues [16]. Among all the afore-mentioned factors, while
some favor the adoption of IWSNs in many applications,
others open new research challenges to be dealt with [17],
[18], [19].
Past few years have been very productive in addressing many
challenges presented by IWSNs. The main developments wit-
nessed until 2012 were carefully transformed to the IEEE
Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) standard 802.15.4e
[20], primarily targeting the industrial applications. Most of
the amendments listed in this standard further improve the long
chain of existing WPAN standards, [21], [22], [23], for indus-
trial applications. Many industrial solutions based on these
standards also emerged. Some significant contributions in-
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, JULY 2017 2
Fig. 1: Flow of the paper
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, JULY 2017 3
cluded, Zigbee, WirelessHART, ISA100.11a, 6LoWPAN Wia-
PA and Optimization of Communication for Ad hoc Reliable
Industrial network (OCARI) [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29].
Moreover, research and development, during past three years,
has significant impact in improving the IWSNs credibility for
process control and automation. A keen and persistent trend in
research developments was witnessed in these years, resulting
in significant improvements in MAC protocols, network layer
optimizations, energy harvesting techniques and incorporation
of new technologies in industrial wireless networks [30], [31],
[32].
These significant research developments in IWSNs have given
new heights to this market, resulting in a momentous rise in its
projected value ranging from $944.92 million to $3.795 Billion
in coming years [33], [34]. However, it is also expected that the
projection would highly depend on the research trends and sig-
nificance of improvements one witnesses in upcoming years.
To cope with the projected market trends, satisfy demands
of more sophisticated industrial applications and to meet the
crucial deadlines in highly sensitive industrial atmosphere, a
dedicated research targeting reliability, real-time data delivery,
incorporation of modular design and interoperability in IWSNs
is much needed.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II
discusses the main contributions of the paper. Section III
categorizes industrial Systems and traffic generated in these
system according to priority requirements. It also lists dead-
lines for selected industrial processes and discusses the failure
consequences. Section IV gives an overview of IWSNs. Sec-
tion V covers the design objectives and main challenges in
IWSNs. Section VI discusses the existing work, standards and
industrial protocols for IWSNs. Section VII gives overview
of available industrial motes and their technical specifica-
tions. It also lists the IWSNs based solution providers for
automation and process industry. Section VIII discusses MAC
layer optimizations and research developments over the years.
Network Layer developments are discussed in Section IX.
Energy harvesting techniques for IWSNs are discussed in
section X. Good practices and design solutions in IWSNs are
discussed in section XI. Section XII gives an insight of future
research directions in IWSNs. Finally, section XIII concludes
the discussion and gives final remarks.
To give better understanding of flow of the paper, the taxon-
omy of the paper is represented graphically in Fig. 1.
II. KEY CONTRIBUTIONS
This paper provides a detailed description of IWSNs and
its relevant areas of research and offers a wider perspective
on advancements in these domains. To justify the contribution
of the paper, some recently published key research articles,
surveys and studies are thoroughly evaluated and main contri-
bution of the published papers are highlighted in comparison
to this paper. For the evaluation purposes main strengths
and weaknesses of the published research are thoroughly
discussed. Apart from this, in reference to earlier surveys
published, Table I is formulated to present the contribution
of this paper in comparison to other review papers. Out of
the nineteen selected surveys, nine are published in IEEE
communication surveys and Tutorials in the years from 2010
to 2016, five are published in IEEE transactions and IEEE
Magazines, three in Elsevier journals and two in other journals.
A brief description of contributions and shortcomings of these
surveys and research articles are listed as follows.
In [16], authors make pioneer contribution in the field, and
present an overview of IWSNs highlighting challenges and
technical approaches in IWSNs. The paper discusses chal-
lenges in IWSNs in comparison to design goals. Paper also
discusses the wireless standards and protocols and briefly
touches energy harvesting. However, in this paper MAC layer
developments are not discussed. Furthermore, most of the
discussed topics cover a brief description and lack compre-
hensive details about the research.As the paper was published
in 2009, there is abundance of improvements which address
the needs of communication optimization, priority systems
and appropriate traffic segmentation in industrial environments
which are proposed afterwards and hence cannot be part of the
discussion in this paper. The presented standards and industrial
protocols have also seen a significant change in terms of
channel access and hence new issues have developed which
could not have been part of the discussion earlier.
In [19], authors present an industrial perspective of WSNs and
discuss its applications in industrial environments. The paper
discusses emerging challenges and expectations in IWSNs and
lists expected operation of different layers. A brief discussion
on the standards and protocols is also provided. However, the
paper gives a direct approach to the possible problems and
offers very limited information on classification of various
protocols with notable footprint. Some of the key research
areas in IWSNs including energy harvesting, WSN platforms,
available radios and potential technologies are not discussed
due to the scope of the paper.
In [25], authors discuss various WSN protocols and standards
and give an insight on the suitability of these standards in
industrial environments. The paper also provides a detailed
discussion on the OCARI technology and lists its specifica-
tions, suitability and network topology. However, the paper
did not mention any information on the research developments
and proposed protocols over the years. The scope of the
paper is limited and some prominent aspects like industrial
requirements, IWSN platforms, energy harvesting, industrial
deadlines, MAC developments etc. are not included.
In [35], authors present an introduction of WSNs and give
a detailed discussion on the energy harvesting techniques in
WSNs. The renewable energy resources are discussed in detail
however, the discussion is limited in terms of broader perspec-
tive of IWSNs and no information on industrial requirements,
MAC developments, challenges and design goals, standards
and research developments is presented.
In [36], authors discuss in detail the various MAC layer
developments in WSNs and discuss the IEEE standards and
well known protocols in conventional and industrial WSNs.
However, the paper does not specifically target IWSNs and
provide a generalized discussion on WSNs. The paper also
does not discuss the primary challenges in IWSNs, process
control requirements, energy harvesting, IWSN platforms and
IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SURVEYS & TUTORIALS, JULY 2017 4
TABLE I: Comparison of this Paper with other Surveys and review papers
Attributes/ This
Main contributions Paper [35] [16] [19] [25] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50]
Future Technologies for I-
WSNs
3 N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N
Industrial systems, priori-
ties of affiliated traffic and
Time deadlines for various
industrial processes
3 N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N
Timeline for significan-
t developments leading to
IWSNs
3 N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N N
Priority criteria based di-
vision of wireless commu-
nication traffic
3 N N N N N N N N N N P N N N N N N N N
Review of IWSNs tech-
nology and transition from
WSNs and wired network-
s
3 N N N N N N N N N N N 3 N N N N N N N
Review of MAC
layer developments
for conventional and
Industrial WSNs
3 N N 3 N 3 O-D 3 N N 3 N N P 3 N N P N N
Taxonomy of MAC proto-
cols
3 N N N N N N 3 N N 3 N N N N N N N N N
Classification of well-
known MAC protocols
3 N N 3 N 3 N 3 N N 3 N N P 3 N N N N N
Review of IEEE standard-
s and Industrial protocols
for IWSNs
3 N O-D 3 3 3 P N N N N 3 N N N N N N N 3
Review and classification
of Energy sources and En-
ergy harvesting in IWSNs
3 3 P N N N N N 3 N N N N N N 3 3 3 P N
Research Challenges in I-
WSNs
3 N 3 3 N N N N N 3 P N P N N N N N N 3
Design goals in IWSNs 3 N 3 3 N N N N N 3 P 3 N N N N N N N 3
Hardware Architecture
and specification of
Wireless motes, IWSN
based solution providers
3 N 3 N N N N N P 3 N N N N N N N N N N
3: Covered N: Not Covered P: Partially Covered O-D: Out-Dated
noteworthy technologies for future IWSNs.
In [37], authors present a survey of WSN protocols and
standards and discuss the operation of the selected OSI lay-
ers. However, the discussion only focuses on Carrier Sense
Multiple Access (CSMA) based communication which is not
suitable for majority of industrial applications. Furthermore,
the scope of the paper is limited in terms of providing
a broader perspective of the research areas and limits the
discussion to a specific domain in WSNs.
In [38], authors present MAC layer development for mission
critical applications over the years. The paper does not take
into consideration the industrial standards and other research
areas in IWSNs including process control requirements, IWSN
platforms, industrial standards, energy harvesting etc.
In [39], [46], [47] and [48], authors present a survey of energy
harvesting sensor nodes. The papers discuss the potential of
various energy harvesting techniques for wireless motes and
provide application areas in WSNs. However, as the scope
of the papers suggest, the discussion is limited and does not
provide an insight into the industrial requirements and energy
harvesting potential of various techniques in accordance with
the industrial applications. Furthermore, the papers offer little
information regarding the broader perspective of IWNs and
key research areas in IWSNs are not part of the papers under
consideration.
In [40], authors present a survey on use of WSNs in indus-
trial automation and process control. The paper presents an
overview of different WSN communication technologies, and
discusses the possible challenges and solutions. However, the
discussion provided in the paper does not offer a consolidated
information on IWSNs and fails to discuss the primary IEEE
and industrial standards. The paper also does not provide any
discussion on the role of MAC layer given its significance in
IWSNs. Other key areas in IWSNs are also not discussed.
In [41], authors present a detailed discussion on the latency
issues of asynchronous MAC protocols for delay sensitive net-
works. The paper presents a classification of MAC protocols
and provides a comprehensive discussion on the latency issues
![Fig. 2: Industrial Wired and Wireless Network technologies and Standards [16], [23], [26], [27], [28], [29], [37], [79], [80], [81], [82], [83], [84], [85], [86], [87], [88], [89]](/figures/fig-2-industrial-wired-and-wireless-network-technologies-and-lihhhi6e.webp)
