ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the major advantages of industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs), such as, cost, flexibility, emerging applications, and reliability. It highlights some important requirements that need to be met for a successful large scale deployment of WSNs in process automation and discrete manufacturing. Typical applications at the field network level that is targeted for IWSNs are monitoring and supervision, interlocking and control, and closed loop control. Safety of humans, environment, and property should always be the number one priority. In process automation some functions are safety-critical by definition, but most of them are not safety-critical. Due to the nature of automation the data transmitted in the field networks is only valid for a short time. If the data is delivered too late it is of limited use, as in most real-time systems. Therefore new data should be propagated through the network instead of guaranteeing delivery of all transmissions.
