ISA-SP100 wireless standard committee forms 2 work groups

ISA’s Wireless Systems for Automation standards committee (ISA-SP100) agreed to form two new standards working groups, SP100.14 and SP100.11. The SP100.14 working group will define wireless connectivity standards optimized for the performance and cost needs of industrial monitoring, logging, and alerting applications. The SP100.11 work group will define wireless connectivity standards addressing control applications – from closed loop regulatory control through open loop manual control. The groups expect to coordinate their activities.

The ISA-SP100 committee is a collaboration of end-users and technology suppliers working to establish standards, recommended practices, technical reports, and related information that will define procedures for implementing wireless systems in the automation and control environment with a focus on the field level.

Those involved spoke out in support of the efforts.

Committee co-chair Richard Sanders of ExxonMobil says: “The ISA-SP100 standard will allow compliant devices that are relatively low complexity, reasonable cost, and low power consumption to support long battery life where needed. The communication data rates must be sufficient to satisfy the range of needs typically associated with these classes. Compliance with the ISA-SP100 guidance will improve wireless manufacturing and control system deployment as well as identify vulnerabilities. These working groups are an important part of our work to develop this standard.”

SP100.11 Working Group Chair Pat Kinney of Kinney Consulting LLC , says: “Since the industrial environment may include high-power interference sources, the standard will also address the network’s robustness. The working groups will address coexistence with other wireless devices anticipated in the industrial work space, such as 802.11x, 802.15x, 802.16x, cell phones, RFID, SP100.14, Wireless-HART, etc.”

Committee co-chair Wayne Manges of Oak Ridge National Lab , says: “These working groups also intend to address appropriate levels of inter-operability or inter-working with other technologies and protocols in the industrial work space.”

ISA-SP100.14 Working Group Chair Daniel Sexton of General Electric Global Research : “Industrial users need a family of wireless technologies they can trust, suppliers need to know how to build these technologies, and system integrators need to know where and how to apply them; ISA-SP100 will meet the needs of each of these groups.”

This summer, the working groups plan to issue a request for proposals on topics including architecture, radio channel model, network coexistence strategy, RF interference strategy, and security. The new working groups also expect to define OSI layer specifications (such as PHY, DLL, etc.), security specifications, and management specification (including network and device configuration) and will also include specifications for wireless workers and wireless first responders, as well as wireless automation networks operating within an automation and control environment. Needs include coexistence, robustness to interference, and interoperability with wired plant infrastructure networks.

Read related coverage from Control Engineering : ” Measure More…Without Wires. “

Get involved : The ISA-SP100 committee seeks volunteers to help create the standard; contact Lois Ferson using this link .

—Edited by Mark T. Hoske, Control Engineering editor in chief,
MHoske@cfemedia.com

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