| Property | Industrial Network | Standard WLAN |
| Network topology | Fixed | Flexible and varying in time |
| Traffic characteristics | Generally quite regular | Generally bursty |
| Typical packet size | 1 - 32 byte | Up to 1500 byte |
| Packet latency | Below 1 ms | Generally above 10 ms |
| Packet error rate | Typically below 10−9 | Typically from 10−2 to 10−4 |
| ARQ = Automatic Repeat Request | ARQ hardly possible | Reliability improved by ARQ |