2 August 2007

Industrial wireless standards

By Jim Pinto

Inflection points bring opportunities for new winners. Wireless will be the next big inflection point in automation. Here's the key: Most companies justify most of their projects on the return on financial investment, which could take years. With wireless, the infrastructure investments (digging cable trenches, pipes, wiring) reduce immediately, and returns are dramatic. Projects that previously could not occur become immediately worthwhile. It's a win-win all around.

Many of the wireless applications now being discussed in the process industries can and have been achieved with commercial technology. This is similar to how Ethernet migrated from the business world into factory and process environments.

For industrial and process controls, what remains to be settled is a standard for low power, reliable, sensor/actuator wireless networks. Many technologies are out there, but no standard exists that excels at the combination of very high reliability, ultra-low power, and the security needed.

ISA's SP-100 Committee and the HART Communications Foundation (HCF) have been working on industrial wireless standards. SP-100's charter has a broader scope, extending from sensors and actuators to the boardroom. Wireless HART has already achieved draft standard status; SP-100 is at an earlier stage. Both groups agreed to use the IEEE 802.15.4 radio standard for the physical layer, and self-organizing mesh network technology for reliability.

Clearly, it would be best for the industry to have a single standard. The concepts and direction pursued by SP-100 are very similar to those of Wireless HART, which they should incorporate as part of the standard. SP-100 should then focus its efforts on the remaining portions of industrial standards–from the field and the plant to the office and boardroom.

Related links:

• Industrial wireless at ‘tipping point’:
  http://tinyurl.com/2527lf
• Automation wireless growth paradigms:
  http://www.jimpinto.com/enews/dec7-2006.html#1
• Is Wireless HART the Future?
  http://www.controleng.com/blog/490000249/post/800008080.html
• Wireless HART fits into ISA SP-100 standards effort:
  http://tinyurl.com/yqa3ek

Behind the byline

Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and founder of Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com. Read the Table of Contents of his book, Pinto’s Points, at www.jimpinto.com/writings/points.html.