A novel solution to interconnect FieldBus systems using IEEE wireless LAN technology

In various process control environments in which FieldBus communication systems are widely used it is often necessary to interconnect them. Unfortunately this interconnection raises several issues and the solutions found so far are not very satisfactory. Zn this paper, we propose a new solution which uses a wireless LAN based on the IEEE 802.11 draft standard as a backbone system. The problems of integrating the traffic generated by FieldBus systems, which notoriously features urgent time constraints, into IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN are dealt with and solved by proposing a simple modification to the 802.11 MAC protocol. Through simulation analysis, we then present a performance evaluation of the interconnection system and the cost of the modification proposed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.