A Concept for Wireless Network Integration in Production System Planning

In the context of Industry 4.0, the flexibility of production systems rises constantly. To fulfil this demand, wireless instead of classic wired communication networks can be used. This trend is supported by the advancement of new network standards such as 5G. Current design of wireless networks in production systems in the early planning phase relies on best practices and experience. In following planning phases worst case calculations are used to verify the network topology. Taking the dynamic behaviour of flexible production systems into account, networks are constantly changing. In this paper, existing discrete event simulation of production systems is augmented with planning components of wireless networks to allow a more precise planning of production systems using wireless communication.