Deploying IIoT generates data that needs to be collected, analyzed, and acted on in real time.
What exactly is real time and how does it affect your network’s infrastructure?
Panduit’s latest white paper, “What is the Impact of Real-Time Data?” explains the relationship between process control and real-time data.
What is Real Time?
The definition varies, but generally, a real-time system is one that provides a smooth, seamless user experience.
This is certainly the case when watching HDTV or listening to streaming music. The video frames and audio samples arrive quickly enough and at the right time.
This allows the viewer or listener to integrate them into a smooth experience rather than discrete samples.
This definition also applies to digital control systems implemented on the factory floor or a flight control system. In those applications, if the digital control system does not respond fast enough, bad things can happen.
Process Control is Generating Real-Time Data
End users and manufacturers of IIoT technology are using three concurrent technological advances to deploy IIoT: sensors, Moore’s Law, and the ubiquity of bandwidth.
Without them, the IIoT and the linkage of the factory floor to the enterprise data center would not be possible.
- Sensors—Sensors like microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) accelerometers, gyroscopes, and inertial measurement units (IMU), have become small enough with a reduced cost, making wide deployment practical.
- Moore’s Law—Doubling the number of transistors in an integrated circuit every two years has resulted in small, cheap CPUs and memories. The Raspberry Pi single board computer is an example.
- The Ubiquity of Bandwidth—IIoT devices that gather data need to send that data upstream for analysis. The ability to connect to a network is available everywhere. There is a wide range of ways IIoT devices can connect to the network, for example, copper or fiber optic cabling, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and cellular, to name a few.
Deploying IIoT devices generates large amounts of data that must be analyzed and acted upon in real time.
To learn more about the impact of real-time requirements on your network’s infrastructure, download Panduit’s “What is the Impact of Real-Time Data?” white paper – or subscribe to our blog to receive our complete 4-part series of IoT 101 white papers.
