ON World

Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks with 500+ Nodes
Doubled Since 2012

ON World’s recently published survey with 220 industrial professionals on industrial wireless sensor networking found a growing number of first-time users as well as two times as many deployments of 500 or more nodes compared with a previous survey in 2012.

San Diego, CA December 8, 2014—Industrial wireless sensor network (WSN) deployments are increasing both in terms their density as well as frequency, according to a recently published survey by global technology research firm, ON World. 

“Adoption of wireless mesh sensor networks has grown rapidly for industrial automation over the past few years,” says Mareca Hatler, ON World’s research director.  “However, this is still an expanding landscape with a larger percent of smaller networks compared with two years ago, indicating a growing number of first-time users.”

In collaboration with the International Society of Automation (ISA), ON World has completed an extensive survey on industrial wireless sensor networking with 220 industrial automation vendors, end users, systems integrators and industry experts worldwide.  This survey shows distinct differences with ON World’s 2012 survey which was a collaboration with ISA, HART Communication Foundation (HCF) and the Wireless Industrial Networking Alliance (WINA).

End Users – Accelerating WSN Adoption

Adoption of wireless mesh sensor networks has grown from 56% of end users (e.g., manufacturers, oil and gas companies), that have deployed mesh nodes compared with 46% two years ago.   End users are about 20% more satisfied with their WSN systems today compared with the 2012 survey and over 80% are planning additional applications.  The survey found that the lowest rankings are for “seamless network integration” and “battery lifetime.”

Adopters – Needs, Wants & Preferences

Industrial WSN adopters are deploying larger networks with network densities above 500 nodes doubling since 2012.  WirelessHART is used by two times more WSN adopters than ISA100.11a.  However, IP addressability for sensors— one of the features of ISA100.11a-- is ranked higher today as an important feature.  In the current survey, 54% of WSN users rank IP addressable sensors as “important” or “most important” compared with 45% two years ago. 

WSN adopters are mostly satisfied with their systems but rankings have decreased from the previous survey for integration, ease of use, data rate/bandwidth, cost and network range.  In addition, 15% more WSN users are interested in IP addressable wireless sensors.

ON World’s recently published survey, “Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks Global Survey,” provides actionable data on WSN adoption trends, needs/wants and satisfaction levels for WSN end users, planners, adopters and several other filters.  The current survey, completed in Q4 2014, is compared with a previous survey in Q2 2012.

The report synopsis and a free executive summary are available from: http://www.onworld.com/smartindustries

About ON World:
ON World provides global business intelligence on smart technology markets. For the past decade, our research reports and information services have been used by Fortune 1000 companies, startups and investors worldwide.

Media contact:
Mary Purvis
e: purvis at onworld.com
ph: 858-259-2397

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