Wireless: Banner Engineering working with Nivis to offer ISA100, WirelessHART

Banner Engineering is evaluating a solution to support ISA100 and WirelessHART through a relationship with Nivis.

By Mark T. Hoske July 13, 2009

Banner Engineering offers the SureCross DX99 for wireless communications in hazardous areas, Class I, II, II Div 1 – Zone 0 and more .

Banner Engineering, which offers Banner Engineering SureCross wireless platform , is evaluating a solution to support ISA100 and WirelessHART through a relationship with Nivis.

Bob Gardner, SureCross wireless product manager, says, "Although these wireless standards are useful for interconnectivity, they also have disadvantages. For example, global wireless standards typically emphasize the 2.4 GHz radio band for compliance in areas such as the European Union. However, most of our customers in North America choose 902-928 MHz over 2.4 GHz because the link has greater range and is more stable. Standards also add a level of cost and complexity to our existing wireless I/O products. It is important to point out that Banner’s SureCross Wireless System can coexist with WirelessHART or the ISA100 standard."

At present, Gardner says, "Banner believes that our proprietary wireless network provides the best level of performance at a reasonable cost," adding that the company supports many wired standards.

He continues, "An important aspect of any wireless I/O system is the interface to the communication layer above, which is typically a wired standard. Banner’s SureCross system supports many industrial protocols, including Modbus RTU, Modbus TCP/IP, and EtherNet/IP. Modbus in particular is powerful, inexpensive, simple, and the most widely supported industrial or process protocol. If you are looking for a standard to protect your investment, reduce life cycle cost, provide solid performance, and have ubiquitous connectivity, look at Modbus.

"Banner is in the business of providing empowering solutions at a reasonable cost to our customers. Our relationship with Nivis will allow us to incorporate emerging standards like ISA100 and WirelessHART when and where it makes sense to do so."
See also Control Engineering , System Integration: Wireless Standards .

– Mark T. Hoske, editor in chief, Control Engineering , www.controleng.com


Author Bio: Mark Hoske has been Control Engineering editor/content manager since 1994 and in a leadership role since 1999, covering all major areas: control systems, networking and information systems, control equipment and energy, and system integration, everything that comprises or facilitates the control loop. He has been writing about technology since 1987, writing professionally since 1982, and has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree from UW-Madison.