The mission of ReICOvAir project

The project consortium was driven by the unaddressed problem that there is lack of standardized methods and test systems for measuring the reliability and general performance of wireless communication systems in industrial scenarios.

The ReICOvAir project has the vision of wireless connections replacing or at least complementing the wired connections for advanced manufacturing and processing systems (industry 4.0). This will provide on the one hand more flexibility in the deployment of machinery and a reduction of the overall installation costs. Wireless communication is the enabler for areas which currently are not or only hardly reachable by wires. To be able to address these industrial use cases, it must be guaranteed that a wireless communication system fulfills the relevant communication requirements for a given industrial application.

The enhanced radio channel model for industrial environments was developed by this multinational Celtic project. The developed test system consists of a software-based and a hardware-based test bed solution which both were proof-of-concept solutions for testing the performance of wireless transmission systems, e.g., in terms of measuring and evaluating reliability, latency and throughput. A necessary rating system for wireless communication systems for Industrial Internet of Things was developed, standardized, and integrated into a single comprehensive software and hardware test bed solution in the ReICOvAir project.

The research work has encompassed following parts:

• A state-of-the-art propagation channel model will be enhanced for industrial environments: QuaDRiGa2.0
• Parameters for the channel model received from channel sounder measurement campaigns.
• Methods of taking into account the media access behavior in industrial environment based on RadioTransfer-Tester for Industrial Radio Solutions (FTT).
• Software test bed for hardware-independent rating of communication standards.
• Software test bed for hardware-independent rating of communication standards.
• Hardware test bed for rating existing wireless communication solutions.

Verkotan is a proud member of the ReICOvAir consortium which was meritoriously led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. Verkotan would like to thank all the project partners.

Project partners: CETECOM GmbH, Germany; Fraunhofer Institut für Integrierte Schaltungen IIS, Germany (Coordinator); Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Heinrich Hertz Institut HHI, Germany; GHMT AG, Germany; ifak e.V. Magdeburg, Germany; Kaltio Technologies Oy, Finland; Qosmotec, Germany; Sapotech Oy, Finland; Software Quality Systems S.A., Spain; Trimek S.A., Spain; University of Oulu, Finland