Partnering with technology leaders of such stature as Advantech offers L-Tron clients distinct advantages – some more obvious than others. Sure, you likely already know about many of Advantech’s field-leading industrial-automation and intelligent-systems solutions, but are you aware of the independent research and analyses Advantech inspires and sponsors? Case in point: IEB Media’s Industrial Wireless Book Special Edition of its continuously published Industrial Ethernet Book.
The 54-page Industrial Wireless Book is a compilation of 19 in-depth articles covering all things wireless. Article titles include:
- Industrial wireless mesh networks can use IEEE802.11 standards;
- Car-to-roadside communication using IEEE802.11p technology;
- WLAN: the future of railway communications networks?;
- Simulcast RF wireless networks aid data transmission integrity;
- Controllers to centralize the management of big WLANs;
- Tracking assets: RFID meets industrial Wi-Fi networks;
- Will the ‘Internet of Things’ change Industrial Wireless?;
- Untangle the Mesh: Comparing mesh networking technologies;
- New routing improves wireless mesh network performance;
- 60GHz Industrial Wireless: perfect for point-to-point;
- Leaky feeder cables provide non-contact WLAN operation; and
- Wireless avoids cable trouble on electroplating line automation.
As always, I found a few favorites, including Wolfgang Bölerl-Ermel’s Tracking assets: RFID meets industrial Wi-Fi networks. As its title predicts, the article explores the potential for linking RFID-equipped assets via wireless networks to facilitate “context-aware, real-time asset management and location services.” The author concludes, “When RFID solutions are teamed with wireless networks, manufacturers can suddenly increase operational visibility almost anywhere.” The article explores deployment of both passive and active RFID tags, as well as a third category of “semi-passive tags,” tags that extend battery life by remaining in sleep mode until activated by a reader. Bölerl-Ermel details three case studies of this technology, including in the context of one of Boeing’s vast production facilities.
Although these articles are now a couple of years old, I still enjoyed and found much of value in each of them. More importantly, though, they demonstrate the value of independent publications such as the Industrial Ethernet Book, resources that would not exist without the patronage of industry leaders like Advantech, and that would be a great shame for technology professionals worldwide. Bottom line: The Industrial Ethernet Book is a comprehensive one-stop resource for keeping up with all that is new in the Industrial-Ethernet market, and I am thankful for Advantech’s continuing investment in it.