CG0809_WHART_RonHelson

Wired or Wireless, HART has YOU Covered

Sept. 15, 2008
By Ron Helson, Executive Director, HART Communication Foundation

The process control industry has been in need of a wireless solution that establishes a global standard. The HART Communication Foundation has created that wireless standard. The main benefit of a standard is to insure that devices from multiple suppliers work together—thereby lowering risk and cost for both the supplier and the user. Wireless technology has matured to the point that it now can be safely applied in industrial control and monitoring applications.  Measurements that were cost-prohibitive now can be measured and included in your control and monitoring strategies. 

We were in a unique position to develop a wireless communication standard for the process industries. Drawing on the technical resources and expertise of more than 200 member companies, we created a new wireless technology that expands the capabilities of the HART Protocol while protecting the global installed base of 26+ million HART devices.

WirelessHART™ is an exciting new communication capability defined in the latest HART Protocol standards that establishes the first open and interoperable wireless communication standard for process automation. WirelessHART™ focuses on the needs of the industry, providing a simple, reliable, and secure technology for wireless transmission of process and diagnostic data from intelligent field devices.

If you think you know HART, look again! New features have been added to the already feature rich set of diagnostics and process information—for both wired and wireless applications.

WirelessHART™ is simple, reliable, and secure.

SIMPLE 

  • Easy setup often using the existing tools, work practices and experience for fast installation
  • Seamless integration to existing host, DCS or asset management applications
  • Self-organizing adaptive network

RELIABLE

  • Channel-hopping to avoid interference
  • Time-synchronized communication
  • Redundant, self-healing network

SECURE

  • Robust, multi-tiered, always-on security
  • Device authentication and passwords
  • Industry-approved data encryption

Why wireless?  Wireless provides a cost-effective alternate communication path for many legacy control systems, enabling access to the intelligent information in field devices.  

This supplement will help you learn about HART and how to use both wired and WirelessHART™ to your best advantage. You will learn what WirelessHART™ is, where it can be used, how it expands the benefits of HART technology, and what you need to know to start installing and integrating HART data with a host, DCS or asset management application. 

WirelessHART™ provides the same safe, easy, dependable experience that users know and expect from HART-enabled products. So remember—wired or wireless, HART has you covered!

To tell us how you use HART, write us at [email protected].

For more on HART® and WirelessHART™, go to: http://www.hartcomm.org/ or http://www.controlglobal.com/.