Wireless merger "will not happen"
5 Nov 2009
The decision was reached by the ISA100.12 subcommittee, which for the last year has been working on developing a converged standard for the two wireless technologies. The committee, whose members include representatives of companies from both camps, has instead recommended a dual-boot approach, whereby devices will be equipped to operate to either standard.
“The ISA100.12 committee concluded that the merger of the two technologies will not happen. They are so fundamentally different that it would be impossible to bring them into one standard,” Honeywell Process Solution’s Jean-Marie Alliet reported at the company’s EMEA user group meeting in
According to Alliet, the ISA subcommittee will deliver a best practice paper for the development of field devices that can be used either as WirelessHART or ISA100.11a equipment. This work, he expected, would be finalised next year.
Meanwhile, the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute has deployed tested and approved ISA100.11a standard devices at an Arkema organic peroxides plant in Crosby, Texas. The trial to demonstrate interoperability among multiple vendor devices using the technology was carried out soon after approval of the standard by the ISA Standards and Practices Board.
The system has been operating at Arkema since 19 Sept, ten days after the ISA100.11a standard was ratified. The parallel development of stacks, transmitters, and compliance tools while the ISA100.11a standard was being finalized by ISA, made it possible to install a working, interoperable, multi-vendor system achieving clear user benefits in the real world in record time.
“It’s a great opportunity to discover this new technology and understand what it can bring to our operations”, said Didier Auber, the Arkema Crosby plant manager. “With the standard ratified, multiple vendors supporting, and big industry players coming on board, the ISA100.11a standard is here to stay so we can develop and grow its use in our plant.”
Suppliers participating in the Arkema site installation include Gastronics, Honeywell, Nivis, Wilson Mohr, Wireless Access Solutions (formally Gooch Engineering) and Yokogawa. Sensors from additional WCI supplier members will be added to the ISA100.11a network starting in October as part of the ongoing WCI facilitated Arkema user deployments.
“The transmitters installed at Arkema have been tested and approved for ISA100.11a compliance using the Wireless Compliance Institute’s Device Interoperability Test Kit (ITK),” says Jay Werb, WCI Technology Director. “The ITK is a hardware/software tool using XML scripts which emulate the operation of an ISA100.11a system manager in a transparent and vendor-independent manner. The ITK is being packaged for commercial release in early 2010.”
There were numerous applications at the site for ISA100.11a standard including temperature, pressure, contact closure, valve positioning, gas detection, corrosion detection, and others. Arkema Crosby enthusiastically embraced the vision of a single coherent architecture that is scalable to cover all of these applications, plus many more, with high reliability across the site.
The entire site is currently covered by two backbone connections and sensor meshing. A white paper detailing the user deployment and early results is available for download from the WCI website at www.isa.org/isa100compliant.
Herman Storey, formerly of Shell Global Solutions reports that, “The ISA100.11a devices do work in a multi-vendor mesh with a common host system. The mesh dynamically handles re-routing in real time. Provisioning and commissioning is interoperable thanks to work done by WCI to provide support services and tools.”
The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute is comprised of representatives from major manufacturing and automation control system users and suppliers, and was formed to decrease the time, costs, and risks of developing and deploying standards-based, industrial wireless devices and systems. WCI has established a collaborative industry-based program among users, suppliers, and other stakeholders that conducts independent testing and certification of wireless devices and systems; provides education, tools, and technical support to users and suppliers; accelerates adoption of the ISA100 standards; and assures interoperability.
