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Follow the standard or your convictions?
In this time when industrial wireless instrumentation is still in its formative stages with unfinished standards and small installed bases, I feel for manufacturers who are trying to plot strategy and design their product offerings.
Based on some discussions following the wireless gathering in Vancouver, I was drawn back to the chat I had with Jeff Becker of Honeywell Process Solutions at their user group last June. This discussion is available for you as a podcast. He says they have chosen a communication platform for instrumentation in their OneWireless system which he characterized as a variation of the coming SP-100 standard. They feel this is more robust and more efficient at bandwidth use than 802.15.4. Although Becker did not say this specifically, some industry watchers fear that 802.15.4 will be fine for many applications, but will tend to exhibit problems related to too many radios sharing airspace before Honeywell's approach will. Of course there's no way to say that for sure yet given the limited number of installations to date. Honeywell is hedging its bets in that they are creating an 802.15.4 platform as well, but they are clear that they consider this a less desirable choice and are doing it only for customers who really want it.
During my trip to Scottsdale last week, I visited HPS in Phoenix. I was chatting with their marcom folks, and Lori Gibson said she had been at the Vancouver meeting. I posed a question to the group and asked how they might react if they believe a standards group is pushing technical issues in a direction they feel is headed for trouble. Would Honeywell abandon a standard they thought was bad and offer a system that might be considered proprietary if they felt it had significant technical advantages? Brian Chapman offered a prudent answer and said that is why they work so hard to help create strong standards.
I suppose HPS has already answered the question with regard to WirelessHART. That protocol seems to have passed off the Honeywell radar. Time will tell if they've made the right choice.
The last weeks of summer and fall will be busy times for wireless with strategic user groups, the ISA show, Manufacturing Week and other events all coming in a short span of time. You should also watch for our August issue of Control Engineering and two webcasts on industrial wireless coming in September. Stay tuned.
Follow the standard or your convictions?
August 7, 2007
In this time when industrial wireless instrumentation is still in its formative stages with unfinished standards and small installed bases, I feel for manufacturers who are trying to plot strategy and design their product offerings.Based on some discussions following the wireless gathering in Vancouver, I was drawn back to the chat I had with Jeff Becker of Honeywell Process Solutions at their user group last June. This discussion is available for you as a podcast. He says they have chosen a communication platform for instrumentation in their OneWireless system which he characterized as a variation of the coming SP-100 standard. They feel this is more robust and more efficient at bandwidth use than 802.15.4. Although Becker did not say this specifically, some industry watchers fear that 802.15.4 will be fine for many applications, but will tend to exhibit problems related to too many radios sharing airspace before Honeywell's approach will. Of course there's no way to say that for sure yet given the limited number of installations to date. Honeywell is hedging its bets in that they are creating an 802.15.4 platform as well, but they are clear that they consider this a less desirable choice and are doing it only for customers who really want it.
During my trip to Scottsdale last week, I visited HPS in Phoenix. I was chatting with their marcom folks, and Lori Gibson said she had been at the Vancouver meeting. I posed a question to the group and asked how they might react if they believe a standards group is pushing technical issues in a direction they feel is headed for trouble. Would Honeywell abandon a standard they thought was bad and offer a system that might be considered proprietary if they felt it had significant technical advantages? Brian Chapman offered a prudent answer and said that is why they work so hard to help create strong standards.
I suppose HPS has already answered the question with regard to WirelessHART. That protocol seems to have passed off the Honeywell radar. Time will tell if they've made the right choice.
The last weeks of summer and fall will be busy times for wireless with strategic user groups, the ISA show, Manufacturing Week and other events all coming in a short span of time. You should also watch for our August issue of Control Engineering and two webcasts on industrial wireless coming in September. Stay tuned.
Posted by Peter Welander on August 7, 2007 | Comments (0)
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