Daniel Sexton from GE Global Research, is the Co-Chair of ISA100.11a, and a recognized wireless networking guru.His talk is titled: "Understanding the unique nature of the universal family of ISA100 Wireless Standards"A little history:
2002 DOE workshop produces wireless vision document:
-- Identifies Potential for wireless to change industry;
-- Identifies barriers to adoption;
2003 DOE solicitation for industry partners to accelerate industrial market adoption process. GE Global Research selected as one of three companies to participate.
2004 Phase 1 - Gather customer data, identify adoption issues; Identify/Verify key technologies. Published data on Hybrid IEEE802.15.4 & field data.
2005 Work with and develop critical suppliers. Perform field trials.
2006 Phase 2 - Field trials, early product developments, customer education and standards.
2007 Accelerate standards process - last remaining barrier.
Critical Challenges and BarriersBarriers:
-- Noisy unreliable channel
-- Short battery life
-- Life cycle costs
-- Network Security
-- Standards
-- Cultural
Actions Taken:
-- Characterize the channel, qualify a design approach.
-- Low duty cycle operation, energy harvesting.
-- Minimize device cost, maximize life and reduce installation expense
-- Data Encryption/Authentication
-- Utilize Standard Interfaces
-- Demonstrations/Education
-- Develop Standards
-- DOE Critical Metrics:
-- Accurate early prediction of asset faults before they occur
-- 5-year average unattended life
-- Significant reduction in installed costs.
-- Market Acceptance
So what is ISA100??
ISA100: Wireless Systems for Industrial Automation--Developing a Reliable,Universal Family of Wireless Standards.
-- Backed by ISA expertise, heritage and history.
-- Nearly 30,000 members with 140 standards committees using an open standards development process accredited by ANSI.
-- Estimated at ~1 billion products using ISA standards technologies.
-- ISA 100 designed by experts in wireless, security and instrumentation.
-- Technologies with direct end users involvement on committee.
-- Family of standards: One-stop standardization.
-- Designed to accommodate all your plant needs.
-- Areas of coverage identified to date; process automation (process focus),
-- Factory automation (discrete focus), transmission and distribution (long-distance focus), RFID (industrial tagging focus).
-- Universality: The power of one.
-- Allows deployment of a single, integrated wireless network
-- Bring simplicity to your work with:
-- One technology to learn, maintain and operate;
-- One security system to manage;
-- One set of infrastructures;
Co-Existence: Providing Peace of Mind
-- Designed with co-existence features;
-- Ensures best possible performance;
ISA100 Positioning
More than ISA SP100.11a, ISA100.11a is the first of a family of standards for multiple industrial applications.
-- More than just process industries
-- Balance of plant -- real-time monitoring;
-- Safety Class 0 : Emergency action (always critical)
-- Control
-- Class 1: Closed loop regulatory control (often critical)
-- Class 2: Closed loop supervisory control (usually non-critical)
-- Class 3: Open loop control (human in the loop)
NOTE: Batch levels* 3 & 4 could be class 2, class 1 or even class 0, depending on function.
*Batch levels as defined by ISA S88; where L3 = "unit" and L4 = "process cell"
Monitoring Class 4: Flagging short-term operational consequence (e.g., event-based maintenance)
Class 5: Logging & downloading/uploading. No immediate operational consequence (e.g., history collection, SOE, preventive maintenance)
ISA100.11a vs. WirelessHART
WiHART ONLY standardizes wireless transmission of HART messages. ISA100.11a supports multiple protocols via single wireless infrastructure: HART, Profi, Mod, FF, etc.
ISA100.11a supports performance levels that enable some factory automation applications, not just process.ISA100.11a is developed by an open user influenced standards body following ANSI accredited procedures.
Wireless Hart and ISA100.11a share many of the same relaibility characteristics.
[editor's note: Sexton made a point of saying that HART requires a fee to play. That's only true if you want to join the Foundation as a vendor member. The HART User Group, refounded two years ago, and chaired by Wil Chin of ARC and directed by Ed Ladd, has no fee for membership.]
ISA100.11a vs. proprietary wireless
-- Interoperability
-- Open
-- Developed in an ANSI-accredited open process by industry leaders
-- Maintained by ISA
-- Multiple silicon suppliers, Multiple software providers
-- Technical growth path with ever-reducing costs and increasing capabilities -it just gets better!
ISA100.11a vs ZigBee
-- ISA100.11a is industrial strength
-- Reliability (enhanced error detection, frequency hopping)
-- Predictability (TDMA, Quality of service levels)
-- Security (designed with FIPs in mind)
-- ISA100.11a is optimized to allow sensor flow to higher network levels
-- ISA100.11a defines a complete industrial wireless sensing architecture
-- ISA100.11a supports multiple industrial protocols via single wireless infrastructure: HART, Profi, Mod, FF, etc.
-- ISA100.11a supports performance levels that enable some factory automation applications, not just process
-- ISA100.11a is developed by an open user influenced standards body
-- Like ZigBee, ISA100.11a is also optimized for long battery life applications and also supports battery powered routers.
ISA100.11a will...
-- Be an open standard for anyone to implement and deploy
-- Be simple to use and deploy for end users
-- Be focused on: serving process industry applications without excluding factory automation in-plant/near-plant global deployment
-- Provide technology to address Class 1 (non-critical) to Class 5 applications such as monitoring
-- Assure multi-vendor device interoperability
-- Have a draft standard ready for work group balloting by October, 2007
-- Include only 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4-2006 radios
-- Adhere to a comprehensive coexistence strategy
-- Use channel-hopping to support co-existence and increase reliability
-- Use a single application layer providing both native and tunneling protocol capability for broad usability
-- Provide simple, flexible, and scaleable security addressing major industrial threats leveraging IEEE 802.15.4-2006 security
-- Offer field device meshing and star capability
Future releases of ISA100.11a will...
-- Include provisions to accommodate alternate phys in future releases
-- Support factory automation applications
-- Support low latency applications
-- Not preclude low-cost implementations over the life cycle of the intended deployments
Leaders relevant to this article: