PONTE: Achieving Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication for Industrial IoT Over Wi-Fi

09/01/2026

Researchers from the Information Processing and Telecommunications Center (IPTC) at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), in collaboration with Universidad Carlos III, have developed PONTE, a groundbreaking scheduling solution designed to enable Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) over Wi-Fi.

While Wi-Fi has traditionally struggled with the unpredictability of wireless channels in industrial settings, PONTE leverages advanced features of the IEEE 802.11 standard—specifically restricted Target Wake Time (rTWT) and Multiuser OFDMA—to provide deterministic performance. By applying a novel mathematical approach based on stochastic network calculus, the system guarantees that 99.99% of critical data packets arrive within their deadlines, even in dense environments. Furthermore, PONTE is two orders of magnitude faster than current state-of-the-art solutions, making it highly efficient for real-time applications.

Potential Applications:

Collaborative Robotics (Cobots): Ensures safe and immediate reaction times for robots working alongside humans by providing reliable delivery of sensors and control data.

Smart Manufacturing: Facilitates real-time updates and synchronization for mobile assets like Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and flexible production lines.

Teleoperation and Critical Video: Supports high-capacity video streams for AI-aided computer vision used in remote industrial monitoring and control

The research was led by a distinguished team of experts from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Among the authors, the contribution of Jorge Martín-Pérez, a researcher at the Information Processing and Telecommunications Center (IPTC) and Associate Professor at UPM, stands out for his expertise in applied mathematics for communications. His work, alongside co-authors Carlos Barroso-Fernández, Constantine Ayimba, and Antonio de la Oliva, represents a significant step forward in making wireless industrial automation both safe and highly efficient. As industries move toward the 6G era, solutions like PONTE ensure that the future of the factory floor is not only connected but also rigorously deterministic.

Bibliographic reference:

Barroso-Fernández, C., et al. (2025) Time-Sensitive IIoT Flows over Wi-Fi: a Network Calculus Approach. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 13 (1), pp. 728 – 745. DOI: 10.1109/JIOT.2025.3623878. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11208663.

Jorge Martín – Pérez: GS / ORCID

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iptc-upm/

For more information: www.iptc.upm.es