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WCI announces ISA-100.11a certification services

07/26/2010

Research Triangle Park, N.C.  – The ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (WCI) has announced the formal launch of ISA-100.11a certification services. With official testing of devices completed in late June 2010, participating suppliers can now offer ISA-100.11a-certified products.

ISA-100.11a certification testing is being conducted for the WCI by National Technical Systems, Inc. (NTS), an independent third-party engineering, testing and certification company.

Notable among suppliers in this initial launch is Nivis LLC, earning certification for its ISA-100.11a communication protocol stack. Nivis is the first to have an ISA-100.11a-certified protocol stack—enabling integration of ISA-100.11a wireless communication technology into real-world industrial plant applications.

"This is a significant milestone for WCI and the ISA100 Standard. WCI conformance testing services provide a vital link between the standards development process and implementation of the resulting standard in the marketplace. Conformance testing provides assurances to end users that registered ISA-100.11a devices will interoperate and adhere to their requirements," said Andre Ristaino, managing director of WCI. 

Manufacturers are expected to make their own product announcements in the coming weeks. These will be in addition to the recent announcements from Honeywell and Yokogawa highlighting ISA-100.11a-compliant products at their respective user conferences.

With a planned maintenance review underway, the ISA-100.11a standard is expected to be submitted to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for approval in early 2011. Certified products already deployed can maintain compliance with a simple, over-the-air firmware upgrade provided by the vendors—a clear example of one of the future-proof benefits of the standard.

The ISA-100.11a industrial wireless networking standard is the first in the ISA100 family of standards. This wireless mesh network standard protocol helps supplier companies build interoperable wireless automation control products. Planned additions to the ISA100 family of standards include support for backhaul functionality, factory automation and other key-use cases. Details on the approved standard, the ISA100 roadmap and use-case presentations are available at www.isa.org/ISA100.