Cellular network-based IIoT architecture for time-critical control tasks of building automation

Abstract

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) adopting emerging cellular networks attracted great attention in various industrial fields, including the building sector. However, the capability of IIoT and the performance of cellular networks when applie for building automation (BA), especially for time-critical control tasks, are not effectively evaluated yet. The potential impacts of network constraints on the control performance also need further investigation for the alternative architecture. These fundamental questions have not been addressed sufficiently yet. This study therefore proposes a cellular network-based IIoT architecture as a newly-proposed and recommendable solution for building automation systems. The architecture consists of smart field-level devices embedded with cellular network-enabled IoT controllers and a configured cellular network. Performance of the latest cellular networks, including 4th generation (4G) and 5th generation (5G) networks, are experimentally tested under different conditions. A typical building time-critical control task is selected to assess the capability of proposed architecture. The results show that the proposed IIoT architecture adopting 4G and 5G networks has good capability for the time-critical control tasks.