According to Berg Insight, global shipments of cellular mobile-to-mobile devices in industrial automation reached 760,000 in 2013.
Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5 percent, shipments are expected to reach 2.1 million in 2018.
As per the firm, the leading players in this segment include Eaton, Phoenix Contact, Advantech and Kontron. Other companies in this segment include Moxa, Westermo, B&B Electronics, Digi International, Calamp, Maestro Wireless, Viola Systems, Netmodule and eWon.
Moreover, backbone network communication and remote monitoring are the two largest applications for cellular M2M connectivity within industrial automation. Remote service maintenance and diagnostics of machinery and industrial robots is a major application within factory automation and real-time monitoring of remote facilities and equipment are one of the most common applications within process automation.
High capacity LTE networks will further increase cellular adoption in industrial automation, even in control applications. However, connectivity requirements vary depending on the application and cellular is part of a mix together with other technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, WirelessHART and ISA100.
