Guest Editorial Special Section on Communication in Automation

As a matter of fact, the availability of low-cost devices provided with non-negligible processing power and increased reliability is changing deeply everyone's life. For example, more and more control and monitoring functions can be currently realized by means of computer-based systems. Moreover, in the past decade intensive studies have been carried out about high-performance communication systems, which concern real-time data exchanges, quality-of-service, validation techniques for distributed applications, and so on. As a consequence, the deployment of applications is nowadays moving from centralized solutions to distributed architectures, where processing (and working, as well) is spread across many intelligent devices. Despite this trend has been observed mainly in traditional application domains, e.g., banking, finance, trading, etc., where the main challenges are preserving the integrity of information and ensuring the security of transactions, it is also affecting in a significant way automation environments: automated factory and process control systems, embedded and distributed control in transportation systems (railway, avionic and automotive), home/building automation, ambient assisted living, medical monitoring, and so on. This Special Section basically targets industrial and control applications, where the main issues are providing the level of flexibility demanded by modern production plants and an appropriate level of performance, so as to meet productivity objectives, while ensuring at the same time safety properties and reduced production costs.