Exploring the Potential of Wi-Fi in Industrial Environments: A Comparative Performance Analysis of IEEE 802.11 Standards  
[PERSON]  
1 Instituto Tecnologico de Informatica (ITI), 46980 Valencia, Spain; [EMAIL_ADDRESS]  
[PERSON]  
1 Instituto Tecnologico de Informatica (ITI), 46980 Valencia, Spain; [EMAIL_ADDRESS]  
[PERSON]  
2 Departamento de Comunicaciones (DCOM), Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV), 46022 Valencia, Spain; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (V.S.-P.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (D.L.-C.)  
[PERSON]  
3 Departamento de Informatica de St Stranses  
converged networks represents an evolution in collaboration and coexistence between humans and machines in flexible and shared work environments. The advent of Industry 4.0 has radically transformed the automation process in the industrial sector by decreasing human intervention in manufacturing processes, thus increasing productivity and reducing workplace accidents [1; 2]. However, the implementation of convergent networks in Industry 5.0 underscores the importance of shared human-machine work environments to highlight unique human skills such as creativity and innovation, problem-solving, and decision-making as key elements for success in manufacturing. In this way, the goal is to reintegrate the human factor into manufacturing production, promoting human-machine collaboration by prioritising customisation, flexibility, and innovation in manufacturing. The emergence of these collaborative industrial environments has underscored the need for wireless technologies that can adhere to the stringent specifications of emerging industrial applications, including collaborative robotics, predictive maintenance, real-time monitoring, and teleoperation. Thanks to the increased performance of the latest Wi-Fi standards and their reduced installation costs, next-generation wireless technologies are emerging as leaders in manufacturing environments over traditional wired technologies. Currently, wireless alternatives such as the latest variants of the IEEE 802.11 standard [3], commercially known as Wi-Fi 6 [4; 5] and Wi-Fi 7 [6], offer features similar to 5G cellular technology [7; 8] in its different network architecture modalities. These wireless technologies are ideal candidates for the Industry 4.0 revolution, which is transitioning to the Industry 5.0 paradigm [9]. In this new era, the industrial and manufacturing sectors are transformed through the integration of the human dimension and the adaptation of automation. Due to this ecosystem, where mobility and agility in a collaborative human-machine environment are fundamental characteristics of the industry of the future, the aim is to create convergent networks [10; 11] that allow the coexistence of humans and machines to enhance human capabilities and skills in favour of innovation and the customisation of production. This is why convergent networks play a key role in the advance towards Industry 5.0. Another benefit of this type of network is the optimisation of radio resources, reducing the complexity of network management by integrating heterogeneous devices and systems into a unified network. This interconnection of emerging technologies under the umbrella of the same technology favours synergy between them, facilitating the creation of innovative industrial solutions and generating added value in manufacturing processes. However, most experimental Wi-Fi studies still focus on a narrow set of deployment scenarios and interference patterns. Investigations such as [12; 13] are conducted in tightly controlled laboratory environments, which limit the external validity of their conclusions. Regarding spectrum, the Wi-Fi 6E test at 6 GHz was confined to a single urban campus and mainly focused on downlink traffic [14], while extended-spectrum tests relied on prototype hardware and were only compared with Wi-Fi 6 [15]. Research on Wi-Fi 7 is even more preliminary, usually limited to laboratory experiments or simulations, and lacks direct empirical comparisons with previous generations [16].