Evaluation of Different IIoT Transmission Technologies for Connecting Light Construction Equipment in Outdoor Areas

Within this paper, an evaluation of possibilities to connect light construction equipment operating in real-world scenarios to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is conducted. The focus is on implementing data acquisition and transmission technologies to acquire equipment usage data. Hereby, special attention is given to differences in transmission technologies before the backdrop of their suitability for the use case, focusing on parameters such as energy consumption, cost efficiency, and robustness. The main findings include that Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Low Power Wide Area Networks (LoRaWANs) are well suited for the remote monitoring of light construction equipment. Additionally, creating a data pipeline where devices use already existing infrastructure on larger construction equipment is recommended. Finally, cellular transmission technologies such as NB-IoT and LTE-M are advanced as solutions when the transmission’s reliability and independence from existing infrastructure are focused upon.