Abstract:
Industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) have
to contend with environments that are usually harsh and timevarying.
Industrial wireless technology, such as WirelessHART
and ISA 100.11a, also operates in a frequency spectrum utilized
by many other wireless technologies. With wireless applications
rapidly growing, it is possible that multiple heterogeneous wireless
systems would need to operate in overlapping spatiotemporal
regions. Interference such as noise or other wireless devices affects
connectivity and reduces communication link quality. This negatively
affects reliability and latency, which are core requirements
of industrial communication. Building wireless networks that are
resistant to noise in industrial environments and coexisting with
competing wireless devices in an increasingly crowded frequency
spectrum is challenging. To meet these challenges, we need to
consider the benefits that approaches finding success in other
application areas can offer industrial communication. Cognitive
radio (CR) methods offer a potential solution to improve resistance
of IWSNs to interference. Integrating CR principles into
the lower layers of IWSNs can enable devices to detect and
avoid interference, and potentially opens the possibility of utilizing
free radio spectrum for additional communication channels. This
improves resistance to noise and increases redundancy in terms
of channels per network node or adding additional nodes. In this
paper, we summarize CR methods relevant to industrial applications,
covering CR architecture, spectrum access and interference
management, spectrum sensing, dynamic spectrum access (DSA),
game theory, and CR network (CRN) security.
