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ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute Conducts Successful “Wireless Plugfest” Confirming the Interoperability of ISA100.11a Registered Devices

Honeywell, Yokogawa, Nivis, GE, Yamatake, Fuji Electric and R3 Sensors Participate in Structured Interoperability Testing Held at NTS Lab
 
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA (10 January 2011 ) – The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (WCI) today announced the success of its recently held “Wireless Plugfest,” a structured WCI member program conducted periodically to validate interoperability of wireless products compliant with the ISA100.11a standard. The event was held in December 2010, at National Technical Systems, Inc., (NASDAQ:NTSC) (NTS) laboratories in Los Angeles, California. NTS is an independent third-party engineering, testing and certification company.

The WCI Technical Steering Committee designed and planned this series of test scenarios to confirm interoperability characteristics in four functional categories: Provisioning, Networking, Application Configuration and Data Publishing.

“We were thrilled with the outcome of the December 2010 WCI Wireless Plugfest and will expand the Plugfest program on an ongoing basis. Our objective is to improve the user experience with ISA100 based products and maintain confidence in our declaration of assured interoperability,” said Andre Ristaino, managing director of WCI.

Test engineers successfully demonstrated interoperability of ISA100.11a based \manufacturer field devices, provisioning devices and gateways. The test included registered devices submitted by suppliers including the Honeywell High Level Analog Input (HLAI) device, pressure and temperature devices, and Yokogowa pressure transmitter and temperature transmitters. Using a structured plan for assessing multiple combinations of network configurations, devices from participating suppliers were joined to gateways from Honeywell, Yokogawa and Nivis, Inc., and then configured to publish data through those gateways.

“We were able to demonstrate the effectiveness of the WCI technical documentation and the interoperability of the ISA100.11a devices and profiles,” said Osman Sakr, CTO of National Technical Systems.

“This was a huge milestone in validating the technical capability, ease of use and true interoperability that ISA100.11a can provide to users in the marketplace. As new ISA100.11a devices pass certification, we will expand our product testing scenarios to confirm the scalability, reliability and performance benefits of the ISA100.11a standard,” continued Ristaino.

The ISA100.11aindustrial wireless networking standard is the first in the ISA100 family of standards. This wireless mesh network protocol standard ensures that supplier companies will build interoperable wireless automation control products. As a result, ISA100.11a device suppliers are able to create, modify, optimize and scale a wireless network quickly, cost-effectively and seamlessly. Interoperability provides users the freedom to choose best-of-breed ISA100.11a field devices, from any supplier, that are simple to deploy, reliable in their operation and support traditional and future applications

Planned additions to the ISA100 family of standards include support for backhaul functionality, factory automation and other key-use cases. Details on the approved standard, the ISA100 roadmap and use-case presentations are available at www.isa100wci.org.

WCI to Host Webinar Showcasing Interoperability Results

Please join a free WCI webinar showcasing the results of the WCI December 2010 wireless plugfest. The webinar will describe the objectives of the Plugfest, how it was structured, the results and lessons learned. Presenters include Jay Werb, WCI technical director and Dr. Penny Chen, principal systems architect at Yokogawa Corporation. It will be presented on 18 January 2011 and 19 January  2011. 

To register for the webinar, go to:  http://www.isa100wci.org/Events.aspx

About the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute

The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (WCI) is a non-profit industry organization providing users and developers with market awareness, educational information, technical support, and compliance for the ISA100 family of universal industrial wireless standards. The WCI provides real world feedback from deployment of ISA100 devices and systems to ISA Standards Committees in order to foster rapid refinement and development of open industry standards for wireless applications. Institute members include end users, technology suppliers, research and development professionals, academia, and other industry consortia and standards bodies. Early members include Apprion, BP, Chevron, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications,ExxonMobil, Fuji Electric, Gastronics, GE, Honeywell, Nivis, Procter & Gamble, R3 Sensors, Shell, Shengyang Institute of Automation, Yamatake and Yokogawa. More information about the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute can be found online at www.isa100wci.org.  

About National Technical Systems

National Technical Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of engineering services to the aerospace, defense, telecommunications, automotive and high technology markets. Through a world-wide network of resources, NTS provides full product life-cycle support, offering world class design engineering, program management, compliance, testing, certification, supply chain management and quality registration. For additional information about NTS, visit our website at www.ntscorp.com or call 800-270-2516.

Press Contacts:

Lisa Grau
GrauPR for WCI
760-207-9090
lisa@graupr.com

Andre Ristaino
WCI
919-990-9222
aristaino@isa.org