Time-Critical Wireless Networked Embedded Systems: feasibility and experimental assessment

In this paper we investigate an innovative solution, to implement high sampling frequency industrial control by means of networked embedded systems connected via WiFi. The basic idea relies on a co–design approach for the control application, which is then able to adapt its sampling period, as well as to tune the WiFi parameters, according to the feedback coming from the network. To this end, we implemented a cross–layer architecture acting at both application and data–link layers, that features a robust frame–delay state estimator, a time–efficient communication policy, and a specific tuning of the critical protocol parameters. Suitable hardware–in–the–loop experiments have been carried out exploiting two different embedded systems available off–the–shelf. The preliminary results, obtained from an extensive experimental campaign, are encouraging since they show that the proposed architecture enables industrial control applications requiring a sampling rate up to 1000 Hz, even in presence of communication impairments.