Wireless devices in industrial automation – A new report from the IoT market research firm Berg Insight says that annual shipments of wireless devices for industrial automation applications reached 5.8 million units worldwide in 2025, accounting for approximately 6 percent of all new connected nodes. Derived from the company’s latest market study “The Global Industrial Wireless Solutions Market” annual shipments are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1 percent to reach 8.5 million by 2030.
Although wired networking solutions are still predominantly used for industrial communications between sensors, controllers and systems, wireless solutions are widely used as wire replacements in hard-to-reach or hazardous areas, on moving machine parts and on portable equipment. “The standardised wireless technologies Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth have advanced to become the leading wireless technologies for industrial applications”, said Veronika Barta, IoT Analyst at Berg Insight. Other wireless technologies include for example cellular, proprietary radio solutions in the unlicensed ISM 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz bands, non-3GPP LPWA, satellite, IO-Link Wireless and non-802.15.4 WPAN technologies.
Today, a growing number of wireless field devices are provided by many major industrial automation vendors including ABB, Emerson, Honeywell Technologies, OMRON, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens and Yokogawa. Instrumentation is particularly important in process industries where continuous monitoring and precise control of process variables are essential. Field instruments are also used in factory automation applications such as machine and condition monitoring. Suppliers of industrial wireless sensing solutions for process and factory automation include Balluff, Banner Engineering, Endress+Hauser, ifm electronic, KROHNE, Pepperl+Fuchs, SICK, Turck and VEGA.
Major providers of wired industrial network equipment also offer wireless solutions to enable customers to monitor and control devices wirelessly in parts of the plant that are normally not connected due to accessibility or wiring costs. These include Siemens, Cisco, Belden, Moxa and Phoenix Contact, which all offer industrial wireless devices such as routers, gateways and access points along with their wired solutions. Cellular solutions are typically used for data acquisition and backhaul communications in distributed automation applications. The largest providers of cellular IoT gateways and routers in the industrial space include Teltonika Networks, Cisco, Moxa, Siemens, HMS Networks, Phoenix Contact, Advantech, Robustel, Digi International and InHand Networks. Besides the leading industrial WLAN solution suppliers Cisco, Belden, Siemens and Moxa, additional providers of WLAN devices include Phoenix Contact, Westermo (Ependion), Advantech, HMS Networks and ACKSYS (iXnov Group).
“Cybersecurity has become one of the highest strategic priorities for suppliers of industrial networking and control solutions as environments become increasingly connected”, said Ms. Barta. The convergence of OT and IT combined with the growing adoption of industrial IoT, remote access and edge computing has significantly expanded the attack surface of industrial systems. Device vendors are progressively embedding cybersecurity capabilities directly into their products. End users increasingly expect industrial solutions to provide continuous monitoring and lifecycle management. “Cybersecurity is no longer viewed as a standalone technology layer but rather as a foundational design principle across the industrial automation system architecture”, concluded Ms. Barta. The ability to deliver robust cybersecurity capabilities has thus become an important differentiator for solution providers, particularly in sectors such as manufacturing, energy, utilities and critical infrastructure.
This article is adopted from https://www.berginsight.com/.
