An industry first has been unveiled by Nivis, a pioneer in large-scale industrial wireless sensor and control networks. The breakthrough technology was demonstrated by Nivis at the Sensors Expo & Conference held June 911, 2008, outside Chicago.
Technically known as the NISA100.11a Evaluation Kit, it is unique in the industry. Only Nivis has engineered and created an evaluation kit that allows users to assess a full ISA100.11a pre-compliant system. ISA100.11a is a standardization effort of the Instrument and System Automation organization targeted at industrial applications.
Nivis has the only ISA100.11abased working system, as well as a suite of evaluation tools that allow assessment of an ISA100.11a pre-compliant network, explains Keith Sciulli, Nivis executive director of business development. If a company aims for ISA100.11a compatibility, then this is the answer.
Nivis has developed a pre-release ISA100.11a system based on the ISA100.11a preliminary draft published by ISA on December 21, 2007. After exhibiting the pre-release system during an ISA100 wireless conference in China in April, Nivis recognized high demand for an evaluation kit that would allow various wireless users, OEMs and integrators to assess the Nivis implementation of the ISA100.11a standard.
The evaluation kit is built on the NISA100.11a stack. Nivis was able to rapidly and accurately implement the standard and be the first to the marketplace. Users devices can be quickly integrated into the Nivis NISA100.11a system, which enables communication tailored according to the demands of the ISA100.11a standardization effort.
The NISA100.11a Evaluation Kit is an assessment tool that allows users to swiftly build an ISA-compatible network. System parameters can be easily monitored and configured thanks to a graphic user interface that displays data received from acquisition channels, as well as the status of field-device control channels.
Honeywell, Cisco, General Electric and Endress+Hauser instruments are already an integral part of the Nivis initiative. The Nivis stacks are currently available for Texas Instruments and Freescale hardware platforms, and Atmel and Jennic transceivers will be integrated into the Nivis solution shortly.
We have validated a wireless system that is adroit, scalable and extensible. It provides the necessary capabilities to accomplish the goals and tenets set forward by the ISA100 standardization effort, Nivis top technical lead on ISA100.11a architecture, Robert Assimiti, affirms.
