I. Introduction
Wireless communication is well established in business and home environments offering mobility and high data rates at low installation and maintenance costs. In other domains, however, wired communication is still prevalent since, in contrast to wireless, it ensures a high reliability and a low-latency. In critical Machine-to-Machine Communications (M2M) as can be found in industrial automation, for example, time-critical messages are exchanged between sensors, actuators, and controllers requiring a communication latency of a few milliseconds or even in the sub-millisecond range and a Packet Error Rate (PER) down to 10–9 [1]. In the context of 5G, this type of communication requirements is often referred to as Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC) [2]. Existing wireless communication systems for industrial automation, such as WirelessHART and ISA100.11a [3], enable a more reliable and periodic data delivery, but do not reach the aforementioned stringent communication guarantees.