Wireless industrial sensor networks: Framework for QoS assessment and QoS management

This paper presents a framework that addresses Quality of Service (QoS) for industrial wireless sensor networks as a real-time measurable set of parameters within the context of feedback control. thereby facilitating QoS management. This framework is based on examining the interaction between the industrial control processes and the wireless network. Control theory is used to evaluate the impact of the control/communication interaction, providing a methodology for defining, measuring, and quantifying QoS requirements. An example is presented illustrating the wireless industrial sensor network (WISN) QoS management framework for providing dynamic QoS control within WISN. The example focuses on WISN operating in a time-varying RF interference environment in order to manage application-driven QoS latency constraints. (c) 2006 ISA-The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society.