Techno-economical viability of cognitive solutions for a factory scenario

Recent advances in wireless communication theory and semiconductor technology brought wireless to virtually every aspect of our life, and this trend is expected to continue to increase in the future. Unfortunately, as the number of wireless applications grows, the same scarce spectrum is reused over and over again, resulting in increased interference, which jeopardizes the prospect of wireless meeting its high expectations. Dynamic Spectrum Access proposes to mitigate this problem by adapting the operational parameters of wireless networks to varying interference conditions. However, the involved increase in cost threatens to reduce the benefit of wireless in different environments. In this paper we examine the economic balance between the added cost and the increased usability brought about by DSA. We focus on a particular real-life scenario — the production floor of an industrial installation — where there is typically extensive utilization of the ISM band. IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensors monitor production machinery, and IEEE 802.11 WLAN is used as the data backbone. We model the benefit achieved by adding RF sensing technology in terms of reliability and battery lifetime, and qualitatively assess the cost of interference and the potential gain of introducing sensing technology. Based on this techno-economic analysis, we conclude that if implemented correctly, spectrum sensing can bring business gains in real-life applications.