Resource guide: Wireless

Iceweb treasure trove

The "Wireless Instruments and Instrumentation" core page at the great ICEweb website contains an exhaustive online clearinghouse with hundreds of articles, videos, guides and other content on all aspects of wireless system design, communication reliability, wireless instrument applications, WirelessHART, interference issues, security, asset management, and wireless standards sensor network implementation. (Though some links are old and appear to be broken.) 

Iceweb

Pervasive sensing—fast

This video, "Rapid Deployment of Pervasive Sensing," is only slightly over 3 minutes, but it's presented by John Rezabek, process control engineer at Ashland and contributing editor at Control, who quickly shows how wireless allowed flow measurement in an impenetrable process environment, and how rapid deployment of acoustic and temperature transmitters provided information needed for scheduled maintenance and reduced downtime. 

Automation Solutions

FieldComm on wirelessHART

A couple of sub-sections of the HART area at the FieldComm Group's website describe WirelessHART, show how it works, and detail its security features.

FieldComm Group

Transmitter control video

This 9-minute video, "Control using wireless transmitters," is based on content and exercises in Chapter 5 of the book Wireless Control Foundation, Continuous and Discrete Control for the Process Industry. 

Wireless Control Foundation

Couple of cover stories

Two of Control's recent cover articles, "Deploying wireless safely and securely" and "Wireless has opened up a world of new process control capabilities," explore how wireless is expanding into more tight places and remote applications, and show how to deploy them securely. 

Control

Architecture overview

The 12-page white paper, "Wireless Process Control Network Architecture Overview," by Soroush Amidi and Alex Chernoguzov of Honeywell Process Solutions, show how wireless networks and devices can fit into existing network architectures, and provides topology reviews and recommendations.

Honeywell Process Solutions

Going underground

Think wireless can't survive in harsh environments? Think again. The feature article, "Eagle Mine takes wireless underground" by John Berglund, electrical engineer at Eagle Mine, show how this nickel and copper mine and mill in Marquette, Mich., uses WirelessHART for vibration monitoring and other instruments to cut costs, improve safety and increase
throughput. 

Control

WirelessHART introduction

The web page, "WirelessHART: radio technology in process engineering" by Pepperl+Fuchs, provides a concise introduction to WirelessHART, how it functions, and how it's applied. 

Pepperl+Fuchs

Measurements for control

Wireless for phone calls, text or monitoring is one thing. Wireless for control is another. This classic, scholarly, nine-page whitepaper, "Using Wireless Measurement in Control Applications" by Terry Blevins, Mark Nixon and Marty Zielinski of Emerson Automation Solutions, details the differences in measurement value updates from wireless versus wired transmitters. The authors examine how PID has been modified as PIDPlus to address control applications using wireless devices, and presents test and field test results to show the same quality control as wired PID can be provided. 

Emerson