However, its practical implementation faces a number of challenges: not least the present lack of a universally agreed standard. This white paper looks at some of these challenges and presents the approach being taken by Yokogawa.

In order to understand the ways in which wireless technology can aid the implementation of industrial automation systems, it is first important to clarify what is meant by the word 'wireless' in this context.

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The installed base of fieldbus devices and indeed all intelligent field devices continues to grow significantly. As any experienced user will tell you, however, intelligent devices can pose an information management problem, especially when you have devices on different networks with different underlying technologies for displaying and managing information.

Historically, the two primary technologies used for presenting and managing information from intelligent devices are FDT and EDDL. Both technologies are complimentary in some ways and overlap in other ways. Many in the industry felt that rationalizing the two technologies to form a single solution would be a good idea, particularly since all the major suppliers support both FDT and EDDL technology. This was how the Field Device Integration (FDI) project was born.

FDI activities continued, but were somewhat sporadic, until 2011, when all of the five major technology foundations, including FDT Group, HART Communication Foundation, OPC Foundation, Profibus International and Fieldbus Foundation signed an agreement to form FDI Cooperation LLC, a company dedicated to seeing through the development of the FDI specification its associated development  tools, and product testing and registration.
The real goal of FDI is to make life easier for the end user. FDI promises a common set of development tools and a single path to managing the flood of information from intelligent devices across different networks to the applications and ultimately the people that need it. It offers standardization, transparency, and, ultimately, reduced cost. The Fieldbus Foundation is committed to the long-term success of FDI.