In addition to Walt's guide, there are links to other Control stories, commentary, podcasts, white papers and blog reports, as well as the results of our survey of 500 wireless users.
All Quite on the Wireless Front
2011
By Walt Boyes
End Users Have Voted With Their Feet, Ignoring Standards Wars and Moving Ahead With Useful Apps
Wireless?
2010
By Walt Boyes
Wireless field devices are shipping, but adoption questions remain.
High Wireless
2009
By Jim Montague
Most folks now believe wireless can work in their process applications. Here’s how veteran users do wireless, and how you can do it too.
The Shocking Truth About Wireless
2008
By Walt Boyes, Editor in Chief
What You Must Know to Use Wireless Systems in Your Plant
Wireless: A Field Guide to Industrial Wireless
2007
No other technology has been written about, trumpeted by vendors and snipped by critics like the use of wireless communications in the process industry.
Survey Snapshots wireless Users
CONTROL recently conducted its first SP100 Wireless Survey of almost 500 readers about where and how they use wireless in their plant-floor applications.
By Jim Montague, executive editor
To see graphs on the results of the Wireless Survey, go to www.controlglobal.com/wirelessurvey.html
Fieldbus Market Intelligence Report
An electronic survey of Control readers was conducted in June, 2007, in order to identify usage and application trends of fieldbus networks among the process automation professionals who comprise Control ’s readership. Detailed survey results are presented on here.
High Hopes for "Low PAN"
Wireless sensing technology for manufacturing is converging in some areas. At the physical, or radio layer all of the major standards groups have converged on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. On July 2007, the ISA SP100 working group voted to use the latest update to this standard as the sensor network in its initial standard for wireless sensing in manufacturing.
Articles
Cutting the wires
Users want wireless, vendors want to sell wireless, so what’s the problem? Our August cover story tackles one of the most discussed topics: the use of wireless communications in process automation.
Power Plant Goes Wireless
While many folks put one toe in the water, some jump in with both feet...
Users get an early look at WirelessHART
At the May 2007 SP100 meeting, Executive Director Ron Helson and Chief Engineer Wally Pratt of the HART Communication Foundation gave a detailed presentation to the committee on WirelessHART. For the first time in a completely public forum, we are pleased to provide this same presentation. This is the straight scoop, without any FUD, straight from the source.
Defining Coexistence, Interoperability and Compatibility
By Walt Boyes, Editor in Chief
A Guide for Users to Determine Which of the Several Wireless Sensor Systems Is Best Suited to Use In Their Plants
Extending the Sensor Network
How Many Pressure and Temperature Gauges (2-1/2", 4," 6" Round, Magnehelics, etc.) Are There In Your Plant?
Wireless Readiness from an Automation Industry User Perspective
By Larry Pereira
ISA SP100 Wireless User Are Ready to Deploy Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) within their Facilities
Not Playing Nice
If You Were Waiting for the ISA Standard to Make Everything Right, You Might as Well Stop. It Isn’t Going to Happen
Chicago’s Navy Pier Welcomes Siemens exiderdome
Unique Technology Exhibit Gives Manufacturers a New Look at the World of Automation
Beach Blanket Control
“PlantBerries” Won’t Control Processes Any Time Soon, but They Do Break the Link Between Many Workers and Their Control Rooms
Look, Real End Users!
Wireless case studies are scarce, so it’s ironic that Emerson, Honeywell, Invensys and others are coming up with them.
ConocoPhillips Makes Wireless Look Easy
Learn How ConocoPhillips Transitioned from Multiple, Incompatible Wireless Networks to Honeywell’s OneWireless Offering
New OneWireless Release Is "Standards-Ready"
Honeywell Demonstrating at User Conference How End Users Have Successfully Applied OneWireless Technology
Honeywell’s Never-Ending Quest to Aid Super-Hero Users
Honeywell Process Solutions' Integrated Main Automation Contractor Methodology Can Help Users Execute Projects, Set Operations and Business Objectives, and Sustain...
Safety, Reliability, Efficiency Anchor Honeywell Vision
Honeywell Talks About Its Ongoing Commitment to Life-Cycle Preservation and Low Total Cost of Ownership at the User Conference 2008
Wireless Now
Think Beyond the Wire
Better Manage Your Business, Your Plant
Plant-Level Wireless Networks Are Already Ensuring Physical Security and Tracking People and Assets
Think Beyond the Wire
Innovative First Movers Gain Competitive Advantage, Even as Last Barriers to Widespread Adoption Fall
Organic Wireless Growth Must Be Managed
Technologies Compete for Bandwidth.
Which Way Wireless?
ISA100.11a and WirelessHART – Your Future Wireless
The Elephant in the Room
There’s an Elephant in the Wireless Room
What About Wireless?
...What About Wireless? ControlGlobal.com Users have the power to control wireless standards. Walt Boyes suggests they use it.
Wireless Devices in the Factory Automation
An Overview of Adoption Trends
Whitepapers
Wireless security on the plant floor
Most papers written on wireless security concerns address corporate LAN access. This paper discusses both corporate and industrial wireless concerns but places an emphasis on the industrial automation wireless security aspects.
Is wireless for you?
From telephones to remote TV controls to alarm systems, wireless is everywhere! It is the hottest and latest technological breakthrough. Or is it? This White Paper compares wired and wireless applications, and the benefits and limitations of this 100-year-old communications technology.
Interference and Security Considerations for Wireless Communications
From traditional narrow-band to more complex spread-spectrum technologies, a variety of radio frequency (RF) communication techniques are available for deployment in industrial environments. Presented and evaluated here, in terms of their relative security and integrity performance, are the most common narrow-band and spread-spectrum alternatives.
Why Go Wireless: Benefits and Challenges of Wireless Remote Monitoring
This paper discusses how wireless technology has evolved and considerations for designing wireless remote monitoring applications.
Open Industrial Wireless Solutions: Realizing the Full Potential of Wireless
In the current global economic climate, manufacturing facilities are being continually pushed to grow the efficiency and profitability of their processes.
Emerson solves wireless problems
CONTROL Editor in Chief Walt Boyes’ interviewed Emerson’s Director of Technology, Bob Karshnia, about the company’s solutions for wireless, the standards work being done by SP100 and the HART wireless working group, and if the company is attempting to force its own formulation of a HART wireless standard down the throats of the other working group members.
Wireless Economics 101
This white paper provides you with some best practices, core economic benchmarks and performance metrics that you can use when developing your strategy and plans for deploying wireless at your plant.
Multimedia
What End Users Think About Wireless Application Networks, Part 1
ControlGlobal.com and Apprion have been conducting joint surveys about end-user attitudes toward wireless systems and infrastructure for two years. In this first of several videos, Control's Walt Boyes and Steve Lambright from Apprion discuss the data and try to draw some conclusions about what the data means. If you are thinking about wireless, you should view this video. Register to access the video and the survey results.
The Shocking Truth About Wireless - Podcast
ARC wireless expert Harry Forbes joins editor Walt Boyes in a far-ranging discussion of wireless based on Control's August cover story."
Podcast: Not Playing Nice
Listen to Walt Boyes speak on the field-instruments portion of the ISA100 Wireless Standards.
The Future of Industrial Wireless
Walt Boyes sat down with Paul Sereiko to talk about the immediate future of industrial wireless. Hear Sereiko's point of view on the subject from the ISA Wireless Summit in Vancouver, Canada.
Kaufman on Wireless
Walt Boyes talks wireless with Honeywell's David Kaufman, director of new business development for Honeywell's Industrial Measurement and Control Business Unit. Kaufman and Boyes discuss Honeywell's proposal for a product architecture, and a draft for the upcoming RFP from SP100.
Shootout at the Wireless Corral
In this audio podcast for the Process Automation Media Network, Dave Kaufman of Honeywell and Jose Guittierez of Emerson put their guns on the table to talk wireless with CONTROL's Walt Boyes.
Hesh Kagan talks on wireless
Hesh Kagan is an automation industry legend. Currently Director of New Business Opportunities for Invensys, he is also Chair of WINA, the Wireless Industrial Networking Alliance. In June, Hesh sat down to talk wireless with editor in chief Walt Boyes. The discussion ranged from the Automation Federation, which WINA just became part of, to SP100, to WirelessHART.
Web Exclusive
ISA100 Meets in Canada
The ISA SP-100 standards committee met for three days following ISA’s Wireless Summit. The first SP-100 committee ballot is scheduled to follow this year’s ISA Conference and Expo in Houston, Texas, October 2-4. The committee plans to demonstrate the ISA100 at the Expo stressing the readiness of the networking technology, and the cooperation among potential suppliers.
Blogs
ISA Wireless Summit Blog
Walt Boyes blogged from ISA's Wireless Summit, formally titled Wireless Solutions for Manufacturing Automation.
