Loss-of-comms behavior (loss of communication behavior)
What a device, vehicle, or controller does when its connection times out: which state its outputs take, whether it stops or carries on, and how it recovers.
The network analogy
Link-down failover behavior: drop to a predefined default, hold the last state, or carry on with cached instructions until a timer runs out.
Why it matters for wireless
Loss-of-comms behavior turns a wireless dropout into a physical outcome, such as a stopped vehicle, a faulted machine, or a robot that finishes its route. You need it from each vendor before you can say how long a gap is tolerable.
Behavior differs by layer. A safety connection that misses its limit places its I/O data in the safe state (Off). A PROFINET consumer that misses cyclic data sends an error message to the application. A VDA 5050 mobile robot that loses its broker fulfills the order up to the last released node, then stops at the decision point if no further nodes are added.
NIST warns that when roaming between access points, devices may experience temporary communication loss. Get the timeout, the action, and the recovery from every vendor, because recovery can be automatic or manual and the two cost very different amounts of downtime.
About this page
Built from 5 sources: 1 standards body or lab, 2 protocol owners and alliances and 2 vendor documents. Researched and drafted with AI assistance, then reviewed and approved by Ben Rutter on . How pages are made
- First published
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Cite this page
Plain
Ben Rutter. "Loss-of-comms behavior (loss of communication behavior)." OT Wireless, published October 5, 2026. https://otwireless.com/glossary/loss-of-comms-behavior/
APA 7
Rutter, B. (2026, October 5). Loss-of-comms behavior (loss of communication behavior). OT Wireless. https://otwireless.com/glossary/loss-of-comms-behavior/
BibTeX
@misc{rutter2026lossofcommsbehavior,
author = {Rutter, Ben},
title = {{Loss-of-comms behavior (loss of communication behavior)}},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://otwireless.com/glossary/loss-of-comms-behavior/}},
organization = {OT Wireless},
}