Towards a Factory-of-Things:

channel modeling and deployment assessment

in PetroEcuador Esmeraldas oil refinery
S. Savazzi∗ , B. Ramos† , J. M. Winter‡ , S. Kianoush∗ , V. Rampa∗ , E. del Rosario† , T. Chavez† and O. Cevallos§
∗ CNR,
IEIIT institute, Milano, Italy. E-mail: (stefano.savazzi, sanaz.kianoush, vittorio.rampa)@ieiit.cnr.it
† ESPOL, FIEC, Guayaquil, Ecuador. Email: (bramos, elderos, tchavez)@espol.edu.ec
‡ UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil and E-Aware Technologies, Porto Alegre, Brazil. Email: jean.winter@ufrgs.br.
§ EP PetroEcuador, Quito, Ecuador. Email: oscar.cevallosn@eppetroecuador.ec.

Abstract—Industry 4.0 and industrial Internet of Things (iIoT)
trends are pushing towards the transformation of factories to pro-
vide more flexible production systems through the use of wireless
networks. Technologies enabling the “Factory-of-Things” (FoT)
paradigm allow the safe deployment of wireless field devices in
industrial plants thanks to their low-battery usage that makes the
maintenance cycle quite low, and highly reliable. The widespread
adoption of these technologies should be paired with tools for pre-
deployment network design and prediction of the wireless link
quality to mimic the planning procedures applied to conventional
industrial wired equipment. In factory sites, the strength of the
radio signals is impaired by frequency, spatial and time-domain
fading that influence the wireless link stability. In this paper,
based on an extensive measurement campaign performed inside
an active oil refinery, we propose and validate a novel channel
model tailored for industrial wireless networks operating over
2.4 GHz and supporting a time-slotted channel hopping (TSCH)
policy. Post-layout network performance verification has been
finally carried out based on a WirelessHART industry standard
system deployed in selected sites.
I. I NTRODUCTION
The adoption of wireless communication in industrial re-
fineries is becoming of strategic interest for many manufac-
turers and operators in oil & gas and petrochemical industries.
Compared to wired system, wireless technology has the advan-
tage of low-cost, mobility, energy-efficiency, compactness and
flexibility in self-configuration or in overcoming any obstacle.
Recently, the industrial Internet of Things (iIoT) paradigm
[1][2] has emerged as an evolution from a large number of
systems employing machine-to-machine communications for
This work has been performed in the framework of the project “A Wireless
Sensor Network Deployment Study in Esmeraldas Refinery”, funded by
PetroEcuador and under CNR-IEIIT and ESPOL Memorandum de Acuerdo
Interinstitucional, Oct. 2015. Stefano Savazzi, Sanaz Kianoush, Vittorio
Rampa are with Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Institute of
Electronics, Computer and Telecommunication Engineering (IEIIT) Milano,
Italy. Boris Ramos, Edison del Rosario and Tanny Chavez are with Escuela
Superior Politcnica del Litoral (ESPOL), Facultad de Ingeniera en Electricidad
y Computacin (FIEC), Guayaquil, Ecuador. Jean M. Winter is with Federal
University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Department of Electrical Systems,
Automation and Energy, Brazil and with the spin-off E-Aware Technologies.
Oscar Cevallos is with Empresa Publica (EP) PetroEcuador, maintenance
supervisor of Esmeraldas refinery.
978-1-5090-5137-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
process automation. Wireless networks are the critical enabling
technology for iIoT implementation, and are now considered
as an instrumental tool for the Industry 4.0 trend towards the
transformation of manufacturing technologies into a Factory
of Things (FoT) [3][4].
Many FoT-related applications have often to satisfy stringent
requirements in terms of reliability and timeliness. Therefore,
the network must be accurately engineered during a “pre-
deployment” stage in order to be robust against packet losses
as well as meet stringent delay deadlines. Existing network
design procedures are often not suitable to address complex
and harsh environments as typical in refinery environments
[3]. Industry-standard design procedures for wireless network
optimization must be instead able to certify the reliability of
radio links under harsh conditions and be applied before the
deployment of the network. Most of the currently proposed in-
dustrial systems are built on the IEEE 802.15.4 physical (PHY)
layer [5] over the ISM 2.4 GHz band. Many standards have
then redesigned the Medium Access Control layer (MAC) to
address specific industrial needs. One of these MAC designs,
namely the Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH), gained
popularity as standardized in the IEEE 802.15.4e and currently
implemented in many products, such as WirelessHART [6] and
ISA 100.11a [7]. The TSCH protocol implements a slow fre-
quency hopping policy at the MAC sub-layer. The goal of the
hopping scheme is to harness frequency diversity to improve
communication reliability: the physical carrier frequency of
each communication link thus changes according to a pre-
defined hopping pattern [8] over a set of carrier frequencies
defined by the physical layer of the standard IEEE 802.15.4.
The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel approach
to pre-deployment link quality prediction that is based on a
statistical channel model to assess the site-specific wireless
propagation parameters in industrial environments affected by
dense blockage and multipath. The proposed model extends
the one proposed in [3] and it is tailored for wireless networks
that are built on a TSCH standardized transmission mode.
It accounts for both frequency and time-domain fading and
provides a statistical model for the received signal strength
(RSS) that influences the wireless path stability [8]. In order
to validate the proposed model, an extensive experimental
campaign has been carried out inside an oil&gas refinery site
(Esmeraldas refinery) owned by PetroEcuador, the national oil
company of Ecuador. As for typical refinery environments, the
site is characterized by an harsh environment for short-range
(10-150m) propagation with metallic structures, changing en-
vironmental conditions, non-line of sight (NLOS) and pos-
sible co-located wireless applications running over the same
unlicensed spectrum. It thus shows relevant similarities with a
dense micro-cellular site. Specific wireless field equipment has
been designed to perform a long-term and real-time acquisition
of received signal strength (RSS) measurements over different
links and considering all the channels defined by the PHY
layer of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard over 2.4 GHz band.
The study is therefore relevant as it highlights the impact
of both spatial, frequency and time-domain fading on the
performance of TSCH-based industrial networks and provides
support to pre-deployment planning. In contrast to previous
experimental campaigns (see [9], [10]), the refinery sites target
of the tests were active (in production): this allowed to verify
wireless propagation inside a fully representative environment
possibly subject to electromagnetic (EM) interference caused
by spurious emissions of plant instruments as well as other
wireless equipment (e.g. WiFi). Post-layout network deploy-
ment verification has been finally carried out by installing a
WirelessHART-compliant network in selected sites.

II. C HANNEL MODELING FOR TSCH NETWORKS

As depicted in Fig. 1, the goal of the channel hopping
scheme, as supported by TSCH mode communication, is to
let each communication link hop pseudo-randomly over a set
of physical radio-frequency channels. The wireless link is
thus organized in time-slots, while frequency hopping might
involve up to M radio channels (M = 15 as prescribed
by IEEE 802.15.4) according to a predefined pattern F that
defines a sequence of consecutive PHY channels. The focus
of the section is on the development of an ad-hoc model that
provides a statistical representation of the key environment-
dependent parameters that characterize the channel response,
namely the RSS, over different PHY channels and links. In
particular, the RSS observed over different channels is affected
not only by path-loss (function of the geometric properties
of the link) but also by multi-path effects that are both
frequency and spatially varying (frequency/spatial fading),
depending on the type of the configuration of the surrounding
fixed scattering/absorbing objects. In addition, time-domain
fluctuations (temporal fading) might be also induced by people
or objects moving in the environment [11].
The RSS si,` (t) at time t, observed over channel i ∈ F and
link ` of length d` is modelled (in [dBm]) as:
si,` (t) = s0,` − ρi,` + δi,` (t), (1)
| {z }
s̄i,`
Fig. 1. Example of multi-channel RSS data collection (Esmeraldas refinery,
PetroEcuador) and TSCH frequency-hopping pattern.
   
where s0,` = s0,` dd0` , γP = µ0 − Γ dd0` , γP is the path
loss static component, with µ0 = µ0 (PT , d0 ) being the
channel gain function for transmitted power PT , measured
at a reference distance d0 (d0 = 2m typical), and distance
dependent loss function Γ(d` /d0 , γP ) = 20 log10 (d` /d0 ) +
10(γP − 2) log10 (d` /dFre ) that follows the model [12] for
short d` < dFre and long range d` > dFre , respectively. Fresnel
distance is dFre = 4htx hrx /λ assumes flat terrain with htx ,
and hrx being the height from ground of the transmitter and
the receiver, respectively. The static RSS excess attenuation
ρi,` randomly varies over the space/frequency domain as due
to both diffraction and multipath effects. The static term s̄i,` =
s0,` − ρi,` thus combines the path-loss component with the
fading effects due to the presence of fixed scattering/absorbing
objects. Temporal fading is an additional component δi,` (t)
that models the superimposed RSS time-domain fluctuations
due to objects or people moving in the surrounding to the link,
as well as intermittent/transitory EM interference.
In what follows, we highlight that some site-specific features
of the channel response are shared by links conforming to the
same “obstruction type” (or link class). Those features reveal
 Type I Type II Type III Type IV Type V
γCj -0.2 2.65 6.5 11.01 16.35
σF,Cj 2.38 3.77 4.36 3.84 2.1
σT 3.6
TABLE I
P ROPAGATION PARAMETERS ( D B SCALE ) FOR LINK TYPES 1-5 OBTAINED
FROM RSS MEASUREMENTS IN F IG . 5.
that the time δi,` and the frequency-domain ρi,` sensitivity
of the link can be captured by a common stochastic model
that provides a statistical representation for RSS si,` , namely
for the probability functions Pr[ρi,` ], and Pr [δi,` ]. The model
in turn allows to make predictions of the link quality (or path
stability) under the assumption of a TSCH transmission mode,
and before the actual deployment of the network.
A. Link classification
The classification of the propagation is based on a set of C
link types {C1 , C2 , ..., CC }: each category describes a specific
configuration of the building blockage that maps onto specific
space/frequency-domain fading profiles. Classification of links
is based on the number and the density of the obstructions: it
might adopt a 2D/3D map the plant [10], or on-site inspec-
tion. For any link ` ∈ Cj classified as Type j, frequency-
domain RSS fluctuations map onto a type-specific stochastic
model for spatial/frequency-domain Pr [ρi,` |` ∈ Cj ] and time-
domain Pr [δi,` |` ∈ Cj ] fading terms. RSS excess  attenuation
2
is herein modelled as log-Gaussian ρi,` ∼ N γCj , σF,C j
, same physical channel and then hopping according to a pre-
with attenuation γCj as due to diffraction [12] and frequency-
domain fluctuations with deviation σF,Cj . Such deviations
are caused by multipath effects characterizing the specific
link type. Measurements reveal that temporal fading is less
sensitive to link type,

but still reasonably log-normal, therefore
2
δi,` ∼ N 0, σT now with time-domain deviation σT . The
use of C = 5 mutually exclusive link categories is reasonable
for the considered setting: this is also in line with previous
activities [3]. In what follows, ordering of link types is
based on increasing attenuation γCj due to diffraction effects,
frequency and time-domain fading parameters are detailed in
the Table I.
Type I: “LOS” (C1 ) link type is characterized by line-
of-sight (LOS) propagation as well as absence of obstacles
(with dimensions larger than the signal wavelength λ) within
the 1st Fresnel volume [12]. Obstacles thus might occupy the
2nd Fresnel volume. Although reflections from terrain (flat)
are responsible for some multipath effects, frequency-domain
RSS fluctuations σF,C1 = 2.38 are smaller compared to other
link types. Compared to Type I, links of Types II-IV are
characterized by obstacles that are either lying inside the 1st
Fresnel volume or obstructing the LOS path. Propagation is
thus subject to strong multipath effects as due to different
obstruction configurations and this results in higher frequency-
domain RSS fluctuations, i.e. σF,Ci > σF,C1 , i = 2, 3, 4. In
particular, Type II: “near-LOS” (C2 ) link type is observed
in environments where the obstacles are located inside the
first Fresnel outer region. Type III “OLOS” (C3 ) obstructed-
LOS link type is observed in environments where the obstacles
are now partially obstructing the LOS path [10]. Finally,
Type IV “NLOS” (C4 ) link type is characterized by objects
completely obstructing the direct path between transmitter
and receiver, but leaving a clearance zone inside the first
Fresnel area. Type V “severe-NLOS” (C5 ) link type refers
to a propagation environment where the LOS path is blocked
by large-size (i.e. concrete) buildings [12] typically located
in the surrounding of the transmitter or the receiver, while
the first Fresnel region is completely obstructed. Propagation
is mostly influenced by diffraction effects caused by large
obstructions, while multipath effects are less significant. The
observed frequency-domain RSS fluctuations σF,C5 are thus
smaller compared to other link types.
B. Model validation and experimental activity
Measurements have been collected from 4 relevant sites
inside the Esmeraldas refinery: these locations, depicted in
Fig. 2, are considered critical for wireless deployment and
have been identified by PetroEcuador crew. The developed
model considers a database up to 120 wireless links. RSS
data collection is based on specific field devices, labeled
as MF and MF-G, whose MAC layer has been purposely
designed for multi-channel acquisition. The devices comply
with the physical standard of the IEEE 802.15.4e: RF emitting
source device (MF) is tailored to transmit a configurable
number of data frames (i.e., ranging from 1-10) over the
configured pattern (see the example of Fig. 3). Each MF device
is programmed to transmit at standard-compliant power of
4 dBm, although the output power can range up to 10dBm.
One (or more) receiver devices (MF-G) can be configured to
synchronously collect RSS data and the corresponding channel
specified by the hopping scheme.
For each scenario, the MF device has been moved in order to
assess the link quality in positions potentially critical for com-
munication. In fact, the position of the wireless instruments
can be influenced by the presence of obstacles (e.g., pipes,
metal structures, walkways, valves, etc.). During the tests,
RSS data are repeatedly collected (alternating long and short
records of 15 min.) and processed for all M = 15 channels
defined by the TSCH mode. The impact of people moving
in the surrounding of the link, as well as small deviations
of the nominal position of the equipment [3], have been also
addressed. In Fig. 5 we highlighted the RSS measurements
and model (1) calibration. Time-averaged RSS vs channels
Et [si,` ] and log-distance log(d` /d0 ) are first compared with
model Et,i [si,` ] = s0,` −E[ρi,` ] for all link types (left column).
RSS excess attenuation empirical probability functions ρi,` and
log-Gaussian moment-based fitting are then compared (center
column). Finally, time-domain deviations σT (right column)
are analyzed: notice that differently from frequency-domain
fading, temporal fading is less sensitive to link class as mainly
influenced by moving people/objects in the surrounding of the
link, or transitory EM interference.
Fig. 4. Model calibration and testing based on the experimental data collected in the Esmeraldas refinery. From left to right: RSS vs channels and log-distance
Et [si,` ] and corresponding model Et,I [si,` ] (blue line), RSS excess attenuation ρi,` empirical pdf and log-Gaussian fitting, time-domain deviations σT . Data
are collected for the 5 link types considered in Sect 2.2.

Fig. 2. Candidate sites for the experimental campaign inside the Esmeraldas
refinery.
Fig. 3. Example of field devices used for multi-channel RSS data collection
(top). Time-frequency RSS data-set sample (bottom).
III. W IRELESS HART NETWORK DEPLOYMENT
In this section, we highlight two specific deployment case
studies in the Esmeraldas refinery using WirelessHART com-
pliant devices. In particular, the tests are meant to verify the
(pre-deployment) analysis carried out in the same sites based
on the RSS model highlighted in Sect. 2. The first test site
chosen for the deployment is the Effluents area (see Fig. 2):
with size approx. 9000 sqm, it is has been currently renewed
to carry out the various types of treatment that are usually
practiced by refineries for treating waste-water. The use of a
wireless system could therefore augment the existing wired
equipment, and provide a flexible and cost-effective solution
for monitoring without the costly (and unfeasible for logistic
reasons) re-wiring over the existing plant. The 15.000 sqm
Setria site inside the Esmeraldas oil&gas refinery has been
chosen as an additional test location over a larger size open-
area field. It consists of a section of an oil depot characterized
by 6 large-size concrete fuel tanks. Revamping activities are
currently planned to augment the existing control systems.
For both sites we used IEC 62591 compliant wireless equip-
ment: 1) Gateway (G) model 1420 (developed by Emerson)
with transmit power: 4 dBm, omnidirectional antenna: ½
wavelength 6 dB gain; 2) HCF sniffer – FieldComm used
for data collection; 3) field devices (developed by E-Aware
Technologies). Link types are evaluated at first by using the
2D map of the plant as well as by visual inspection to
compute the link path stability PS,` (or packet successful
rate). This is percentage of transmitted packets that have
successfully reached their destination over a given path. For a
link implementing the channel hopping pattern F, successful
rate can be modelled in terms of RSS (1) as:
PS,` = Pr [mini∈F (si,` ) > β] (2)
being β = −85 dBm the receiver sensitivity for IEEE
802.15.4 devices. Path stability is a lower-bound to network
reliability as it does not account for automatic MAC-layer
re-transmissions. Modeling of path stability (2) is thus a
conservative choice as far as pre-deployment assessment is
concerned. In addition to path stability, other network metrics
are tracked: 1) burst rate, namely the transmission interval to
the Gateway; 2) missed update since initially joining the net-
work; 3) number of nearby devices with reliable connections.
Figure 5 summarized the performance results from the tests
in Effluents area. In particular 3 topologies are considered.
In topology 1, field devices labeled as E01, E02 present a
highly reliable connection with the Gateway as Type IV but
in short range. Device E04 has 1 missed update and a low
path stability (1.7%) with its neighbor device E02 (being
a Type V link). Device E05 has 2 neighbors, a high path
stability (99.5%) is observed with device E02 (Type III).
In topology 2, devices E01 and E02 have a high reliability
with 0 missed updates registered during network life. Device
E04 has 13 missed updates for 660 data packets transmitted
during this setup. Device E05 failed to establish a successful
connection with the Gateway as the link is obstructed by a
concrete building (Type V) that is surrounding the Gateway
side. In the third topology, devices E01, E02 and E04 have a
high reliability with 0 missed updates (in 36 minutes). Being
located behind a concrete building, device E04 may present
more failed transmissions than E01 and E02, since the path
stability is about 70% for all neighbors. Device E05 has a
lot of messages delivered out of time (1041 missed updates):
it is possible to conclude that device E05 is not deployed
in a favorable situation, since it has only one neighbor with

Fig. 5. Example topologies in the Effluents area and WirelessHART network
performance analysis.
a good link (device E04). Figure 6 summarized the results
from the WirelessHART layout verification in the Setria area.
For topology 1, as confirmed by the model, each device has
at least one neighbor with a high path stability and thus
high reliability. Device E05 is the only device with no direct
connection with the Gateway: 1 missed update is observed
(from 32 publications). The worst path stability is between
device E02 and the Gateway (49%), however packets reaching
device E02 can follow two alternative paths (through E02-E01
and E04). In the second topology, path stability is lower on
average. However, excluding Type V links, all the equipment
are reliably connected with the Gateway in multi-hop mode,
with 0 missed updates (217 minute registration). For stress-
testing purpose, device E05 was finally configured with a
burst time of 16 seconds, while 13 missed updates have been
observed during 144 minutes.
IV. C ONCLUDING REMARKS
The paper presented the results of an extensive experimental
measurement campaign in the oil refinery Esmeraldas. A
novel channel model is proposed to characterize site-specific
spatial, frequency and time-domain fading features of the
wireless channel response that are shared by links conforming
Fig. 6. Example topologies in the Setria area and WirelessHART network
performance analysis.
to the same obstruction type. The measurements analysed
highlight an accuracy of the proposed model with an error on
predicted link path stability below 6dB for the considered sites.
Results from the post-layout deployment verification based
on a WirelessHART system confirm the effectiveness of the
virtual planning approach.
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