Integrating Field Measurements into a Model-Based Simulator for Industrial Communication Networks

Efficient and accurate simulation methods are of increasing importance in the design and evaluation of factory communication systems. Model-based simulation methods are based on formal models that govern the interactions between components and subsystems in the systems that are being simulated. The formal models facilitate systematic integration across the system, and enable powerful methods for analysis and optimization of system performance. However conventional simulation approaches utilize communication channel models that do not fully reflect the characteristics and diversity of industrial communication channels. To help bridge this gap, we develop in this paper new methods for channel model construction for link-layer simulation that systematically incorporate field measurements of wireless communication channels from industrial networks, and derive corresponding channel modeling library components. The generated library components capture channel characteristics in the form of lookup tables, which can be flexibly integrated into system-level simulators or co-simulation tools. We integrate our new table-generation methods into a model-based co-simulator that jointly simulates the interactions among process flows, physical layouts of workcells, and communication channels in factory systems that are integrated with wireless networks. Experimental results using our lookup-table-augmented co-simulator demonstrate the utility of the proposed methods for flexibly and accurately integrating realistic industrial network channel conditions into simulation processes.