If the success of cellular networks, starting with he GSM, is no longer to demonstrate with billions of people connected in the world, they received up to now few industrial applications, strictly speaking. New progress is made possible by the solutions 3G+ (HSPA) and 4G which increase the throughput, the quality and the diversity of services. In addition the offer of wireless communications diversified considerably with the development of the wireless local area networks (W-LANs), operating in free ISM bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) or in frequencies under license. Many generic systems are available today: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc. Others are in the validation stage (802.11ac), or will be available later on (UWB).

Taking into account the magnitude of the potential request, the ISA develops a new, standard specific to the industrial applications: the ISA 100.11a, whose first version is now available. Compared to the generic networks, the ISA 100 standard will make it possible to build meshed architectures, ensuring the routing of information packets with redundancy and self-healing in case of default.

Other solutions have also emerged: the HART Foundation has developed the WirelessHART solution while the IETF has specified the 6Low PAN standard ensuring the interconnectivity with Internet V6. Solutions addressing specific markets are also available, notably DASH7 and EnOcean for very low power consumption sensor networks as well as RFID systems.

 The future of the network communications in industry is thus clearly directed towards wireless solutions for numerous applications, where until now, either the wired conventional networks or the administrated wireless networks, constituted the only possible answers. A reduction of capital investment and an optimal management of the process, thanks in particular to predictive maintenance, are to be expected.

KB Intelligence has the expertise necessary to accompany the potential users in their preliminary investigations and to give the necessary formation, either directly or through the ISA-France organization.