WLAN Industrial Networking

1) Technology Definitions:

• Ruggedized Industrial WLAN Access Point: Ruggedized industrial Access Points (APs) have been engineered for operation in harsh and complex environments, and can withstand extreme temperature variations (i.e., -40ºC to 75ºC) and environmental hazards such as water, dust, or fire (certified by Ingress Protection (IP) ratings and industry certifications such as U.S. Hazardous Location (HAZLOC Class 1 Division 2 or ATEX Zone 2). They are also typically highly optimized for their target application, whether that be for mounting on DIN rails within industrial manufacturing facilities, or for alongside the trackside of locomotives.
• Ruggedized Industrial WLAN Access Point/Client: This subset of ruggedized Industrial WLAN Access Points have dual functionality, with the ability to act as either an AP or client within the network. This allows for greater flexibility for hardware that has been installed onto industrial equipment, such as Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) within OT (Operational Technology) networks.
• 802.11n: First introduced back in 2008, and retroactively classified as Wi-Fi 4 by the Wi-Fi Alliance, this standard is still the predominant standard in industrial WLAN networking, despite having been phased out of enterprise networks many years ago.
• 802.11ac: This standard, commonly known as Wi-Fi 5, was officially certified in 2013, with a wave 2 certification following in 2016. The new capabilities 802.11ac introduced were primarily orientated toward improving the possible throughput, with little advancements in terms of latency and reliability. For this reason, 802.11ac has only been adopted for select, high-throughput demanding applications within OT.
• 802.11ax: Released in 2018, 802.11ax has many features that are highly valuable for the high reliability demands of OT networks, including Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Access (OFDMA), as well as for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), such as Target Wake Time (TWT). Standard 802.11ax, also known as Wi-Fi 6, supports the 2.4 Gigahertz (GHz) and 5 GHz bands only, whereas the updated Wi-Fi 6E standard also has compatibility with the newly released 6 GHz spectrum.
• 802.11be: This is the latest standard that was finalized by the Wi-Fi Alliance as Wi-Fi 7 in early 2024. New features include Multi-Link Operation (MLO), 4K Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), support for 320 Megahertz (MHz) channels, and 16x16 Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO). Most in the industry agree that most new features of 802.11be are more relevant for the client than for the AP. 802.11be also supports the 6 GHz spectrum, although versions of the equipment are available that support only the legacy 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.
• 802.11bn: Scheduled for certification in 2027/2028, 802.11bn (Wi-Fi 8) is focused on delivering “ultra-high reliability,” and has provisional features, including multi-AP coordination, distributed MLO, and Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ). Adoption of the standard is forecast to pick up toward the end of this decade.