A Place for Cable in a Wireless World?

Wireless is becoming increasingly prominent in industries from energy to consumer goods and food processing. Indeed, it also has a place in Cimteq’s own technology – CableMES’ remote sensors that monitor machinery performance and reduce maintenance costs as a result being one such example.

The benefits of wireless are numerous. As there is no mechanical wear and tear, downtime is reduced. It can also access new environments where a wired network is prohibitive – for example, hazardous environments such as at height or involving water, or simply where the scale of coverage through cabling would otherwise be costly.

In our increasingly wireless world, is there still a need for cable?

In the banking sector and other sectors transferring legal or confidential data, wired networks provide the required security. Cyber vulnerability increases significantly when using wireless which at best can result in privacy violation and at worst identity theft and its financial consequences.

Whilst typically more expensive, wired networks are reliable and stable in other ways. They are not subjected to the same interference from other traffic on the network which allows for a greater data transfer speed. Similarly, their performance is not dictated by proximity to the power source.

For many sectors, a concern that may override cost and convenience is reliability. The concept of the Internet of Things is being adopted within the factory environment at a much greater rate than ever before. Its role in connecting physical devices only increases the need for efficient, unfailing cables. In the same way, in fact, that all our Internet and mobile communication signals are facilitated by a fixed fibre optic cable network despite the fact that our mobile devices themselves may be wireless.

The best solution undoubtedly continues to be a combination of wired and wireless.

Source: Wire and Tube News