ISA Insights

February 2008

ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute

The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute—established by industry leaders from major manufacturing and automation control system users and suppliers—was created to develop essential specifications and processes to be used in the testing and certification of wireless products and systems for the ISA100 family of wireless standards.

The organization’s mission is to decrease the time, costs, and risks of developing and deploying standards-based, industrial wireless devices and systems by establishing a collaborative industry-based standards compliance program among users, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Current sponsors of the Institute include Airsprite, Honeywell, Invensys, NIVIS, Shell, Shenyang Institute of Automation, and Yokogawa.

The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute will conduct independent testing and certification of wireless devices and systems for the ISA100 Wireless Systems for Industrial Automation standards. The Institute will provide education and technical support to users and suppliers in the design, certification, deployment, and management of wireless devices and systems that utilize the family of standards and accelerate adoption of the ISA100 standard by certifying that wireless devices and systems meet a common set of specifications for consistent and reliable performance. The organization will also ensure interoperability, using standards, tests, and conformance processes for wireless devices and systems to ensure certain performance criteria are met.

“The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute is incredibly important for end users in our industry,” said David Kaufman of Honeywell. “A well-designed and managed product certification process will reduce cost, time, and risk for users selecting and deploying wireless products and systems. It’s also important for suppliers and integrators, who can improve their time to market and lower their development and integration costs with a single compliance framework and an ISA100 Wireless Compliant stamp of approval.”

The main benefit to Users is a reduction in cost, time, and risk associated with the selection and deployment of wireless products and systems through a well-designed and managed product certification process. Key benefits include instant recognition of a product’s or system’s wireless communication characteristics and capabilities, assurance of predictable performance “out of the box” (straight from the box) for ISA100 Wireless Compliant products and systems leading to improved process reliability and safety, and the ability to procure ISA100 Wireless Compliant products and systems that will securely and reliably interoperate within any ISA100 Wireless Compliant network..

The organization will provide Users a single forum for voicing product and system test specification requirements ensuring their needs are understood and accounted for, and technical support for the deployment and configuration of ISA100 Wireless Compliant products and systems.

Two added benefits include the ability to make and substantiate clear claims of compliance to a consensus, open industry standard via the ISA100 Wireless Compliant designation; and the ability to create products and systems that interoperate—enabling more flexible system configurations that allow consistent and predictable performance in any ISA100 Wireless Compliant network.

The organization offers Suppliers and Integrators technical support for the development and deployment of ISA100 Wireless Compliant products and systems, profiles to support the development of the products or systems that users want to purchase, and a commitment to a common need for a shared wireless communication vision to be executed by suppliers, users, and integrators.

Standards bodies and government agencies developing industrial wireless standards will benefit from the ISA100 Wireless Compliant program promoting better, field-tested specifications that are clearly being followed by industry.

The initial sponsors of the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute returned from a very productive meeting at the ISA offices on 3-4 January 2008. During this meeting the scope of the initiative for 2008 was defined to include the development of test specifications for the ISA100.11a standard, the development of test kits and support programs to allow suppliers to test their products, licensing of suitable testing entities to conduct the compliance test, building brand awareness for the ISA100 standards and the ISA100 Wireless Compliance mark, and the establishment of collaborative relationships with other organizations to assure compliance activities are complementary.

The ISA100.11a standard will provide an interoperable environment for wireless devices, and the scope of the test specification will include testing the system standard, application layer, network layer, transport layer, security layer, system manager and gateway, data link layer, physical layer and device interoperability. The test specification’s scope, objectives, development process, review process, and schedule have been approved by the current members of the Institute.

“Development of the test specification will parallel the development of the ISA100.11a standard,” said ISA100 co-chair Wayne Manges of ORNL. “The development work that the standard committee is working on will feed the compliance work, and the work that the Institute is doing will help our working groups to better focus the standard. As each draft of ISA100.11a is released, the Institute’s compliance engineers will provide feedback to make sure that we’re developing a testable standard.”

The test specification schedule includes several milestones, with a draft test specification (minus the test cases and security portions of the document) released for comment at the end of February. The first full draft of the test specification will be complete in early April, in parallel with the release of the draft ISA100.11a standard for working group ballot. The second draft will be released in early June, after edits are made based on the ISA100.11a working group ballot responses.

“It’s important that companies interested in becoming members of the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute join at this stage of development,” said Automation Standards Compliance Institute Managing Director Andre Ristaino. “Industry leaders who join the Institute now can help define the model that determines how products and systems will become compliant and contribute to test specifications. Our supplier members can ensure that their products or systems are going to be compliant the first time they’re tested, and users will ensure that their specific needs are met for “out of the box” reliable performance in their plants.”

To learn more about the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute, visit www.isa.org/ISA100Compliant, or contact Andre Ristaino at 919-990-9222 or aristaino@isa.org.