Wi-Fi Gaining Ground in Explosive Industrial Networking Market

In a recently completed six-volume market study on global markets and user requirements for wireless and wireline network infrastructure products used in industrial facilities, Venture Development Corp (VDC) finds extensive deployment of Wireless Ethernet (Wi-Fi) networking, with an increasing trend toward even greater usage. Of the infrastructure products studied, shipments using proprietary protocols, principally in the 900MHz and 2.4GHz bands, accounted for the highest share of worldwide shipments in 2006, at about 47% of the total. However, the shipment growth rate for these is forecast at below average, and the shipment share is expected to decline to about 44% in 2011.




Several factors will account for the trend to higher growth in use of wireless standards. These include the established base and familiarity among both engineers and IT departments with IEEE802.11 and other standards.

Advantages of using standard networks include lower prices, interchangeable suppliers and established best practices (including security and interference protection, and ease of installation).

In 2006, products under study incorporating wireless Ethernet IEEE802.11 standards accounted for almost 44% of worldwide shipments, and are forecast to account for over 48% in 2011.

In this explosive market, the highest shipment growth rate is expected for products using the IEEE802.11 standards.

Of the total market gain of $868.9 million expected in 2011 compared with the 2006 market, products using wireless Ethernet IEEE802.11 standards are expected to account for $430.6 million, or almost 50% of the increase.

Above-average growth is also expected in shipments of the infrastructure products under study with use of the mesh networking IEEE802.15.4 standard and protocols built on it (most notably ZigBee).

These will continue to account for a larger share of shipments as low-power, low-datarate meshed sensor networks find wider acceptance.

However, despite the hype, mesh networking is not expected to account for a significant portion of the industrial wireless networking infrastructure market by 2011.

Ultimately, the choice between using a standard like IEEE 802.11 and proprietary protocols comes down to the application. Users needing to transfer large amounts of data, in short time periods, at relatively short distances, may find that IEEE 802.11 fits their needs best. Those with longer range applications may choose to use lower frequency networks. In many industries and applications, a mix of networks may be best, with lower RF frequency ISM bands used at the sensor or field level and IEEE 802.11 networks elsewhere. To meet this need, many suppliers of wireless networking products have worked to develop products for both or have partnered accordingly.

Venture Development Corporation (VDC) is an independent technology market research and strategy consulting firm that specializes in a number of industrial, embedded, component, retail automation, RFID, AIDC, datacom/telecom, and defense markets. VDC has been operating since 1971, when the firm was founded by graduates of the Harvard Business School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.