In industrial applications, there are many instances where wires get in the way or are just not practical at all. Whether you work with Automated Guided Vehicles, remote monitoring and control systems, or mobile communications, we all face an increasing number of applications every day requiring a unique and flexible architecture. Fortunately, Industrial Wireless LAN and Siemens SCALANCE W products provide solutions today. Wireless technology presents new opportunities for today’s businesses. However, harsh environments, deterministic control applications, noise, interference, safety and security requirements are some of the unique challenges that must be considered in the manufacturing environment.
Going beyond wireless products designed for the office, SCALANCE W addresses the demanding characteristics needed to deploy wireless networking in your industrial application.SCALANCE W utilizes standard IEEE 802.11 (a, b, and g; 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz) with important enhancements for industrial applications like dedicated data speeds, active antenna diversity and security. Nevertheless, because of the strong compliance with this open standard, compatibility with existing devices is assured.
Dedicated data speeds
The randomly-controlled access process described in IEEE 802.11 is sufficient for the wireless connection of many network devices. However, an exactly timed process is required for most production control applications. To accommodate this, SCALANCE W offers the capability of pre-defining a specific data speed in advance, thus allowing time-critical connections to be guaranteed.
Reliability in sending and receiving
Active antenna diversity is a standard feature of SCALANCE W. Between multiple antennas, the strongest signal is automatically used. Additionally, SCALANCE W offers a programmable wireless connection control, assuring that clients cannot disappear unnoticed from the radio relay system.
Security in wireless data transfer
SCALANCE W offers a “security wizard” so that the required security can be easily managed without any special training. This allows problem-free installation of Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) security. WPA resolves the security gaps and regulates authentication along secure lines. Encryption takes place with the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The 128-bit long encryptions are changed frequently and are undecipherable from the outside.
