Consider the following scenario. Your company is planning on automating a small
ID: 3732884 • Letter: C
Question
Consider the following scenario. Your company is planning on automating a small fabrication facility. The facility is 20 x 30 m divided into 4 areas by non-metallic bulkheads. The automation procedure requires four network nodes per area. Data rates are about 200 bytes per second per node, and worst-case latency is 75 milliseconds.
You’ve been tasked by your supervisor to make a recommendation for the network protocol to be employed. Your choices are Wi-Fi, Zigbee, Bluetooth, or any one of the industrial Ethernet versions you prefer (indicate which one you picked). You must justify your selection in terms of performance, cost (including cost of installation), and security. You can recommend more than one protocol if appropriate. You can make any reasonable assumptions you like but you must state them clearly and justify them. Remember, your supervisor has a short attention span, so be concise.
Would you change your answer to part (a) if the bulkheads were metallic? If your answer is “no,” explain why. If your answer is “yes,” what would you change it to, and why?
Would you change your answer to part (a) if high-resolution video is required? (Assume one channel at a data rate of 10 Mbps.) Again, if your answer is “no,” explain why. If your answer is “yes,” what would you change it to, and why?
Explanation / Answer
You must justify your selection in terms of performance, cost (including cost of installation), and security
My selection will include "Wifi", Bluetooth and "LAN Connection". The reasons for this selection is:-
Performance - Wifi has more network coverage as compared to Bluetooth, so the employees can gain access to internet connection over a wider area of netwowrk. Also the Wifi devices are wireless hence no need to connecting cables to connect your devices to the internet. Simply choose the DNS name of your Wifi connection and enter valid credentials to establish connection. So it will enhance performance of network usage over a wider area. Also in case if both of them fail, then LAN Connection will come to ur rescue and we can have 24*7 internet facility to carry out the desired opeartions.
Cost (including cost of installation) - As both Bluetooth and Wifi are wireless devices to help establish connection with other devices, the cost of installation will only include the setup cost of these devices and base plan selected. No cost required for connecting LAN wires and switch boxes and hubs. Also minimum cost will be required for network security if we implement Symantec Protection to disallow unauthorised access to the company's network.
Security - Both Wifi and Bluetooth devices can be protected via passwords and only the registered employees can gain access to them. Also Bluettoth devices will have a special pairing key and alist of devices that can be paired so that only only devices can communicate via Bluettoth. This way we can prevent malicious transfer of files that can damage the systems. Also the Wifi Routers can be configured with Firewall settings to prevent malicious attack from foreign sources and a Network Usage Meter to check which employee used how much data monthly. This way we can track data usage and unusual activity if found.
Would you change your answer to part (a) if the bulkheads were metallic? If your answer is “no,” explain why. If your answer is “yes,” what would you change it to, and why? - No
The nature of the current operating process is getting changed from "Manual" to "Automated". This has nothing to do with surrounding materials (ie. non metallic bulkheads / metallic bulkheads). We are more concerned about the output from the process via using Automation given the raw/basic inputs. The surrounding materials if required can be shifted/moved out so that the Automation can be done smoothly as this will generate more output in less amount of time and will require less labour-hours. Hence, in order to Automate process we may need to take up steps to clear the surroundings/boundaries, etc so that process can be carried out smoothly.
Would you change your answer to part (a) if high-resolution video is required? (Assume one channel at a data rate of 10 Mbps.) Again, if your answer is “no,” explain why. If your answer is “yes,” what would you change it to, and why? - No
If high resolution video is required then the bandwidth of the 4 nodes needs to be increased so as to allow higher data flows into the network so as to enhance the process of Automation. Say we have initially 5Mbps connection, we can upgrade to 10Mbps connection so that high resolution videos can be played smoothly without buffering and the Automation process runs smoothly as before.
Please let me know in case of any clarifications required. Thanks!