The IO-Link Community reported Jan. 9 that international standardization of its IO-Link Wireless protocol has been successfully completed. In November 2023, the International Electrotechnical Commission published the IEC 61139-3:2023 standard, “Industrial networks—single-drop digital communication interface—part 3: wireless extensions,” also known as “IO-Link Wireless.”
IO-Link Wireless describes fast, reliable wireless communication between sensors, actuators and associated base stations in industrial operations. IO-Link Wireless, Version 1.1, was published as “IO-Link wireless system extensions” by the IO-Link community in 2018. Since then, the community undertook expansions and improvements, and prepared an associated test specification.
Participants from member companies also transitioned the updated version of IO-Link Wireless into an IEC standard with support from the German Commission for Electrotechnical, Electronic & Information Technologies of DIN and VDE (DKE). These efforts were also promoted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) as “IOLW-4-IEC” as part of the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Through Patents and Standards (WIPANO) funding guideline and supported by the IO-Link Community.
With the successful completion of IO-Link Wireless as IEC 61139-3, the most important pillars of IO-Link technology, IO-Link specification version 1.1.3 in IEC 61131-9 and IO-Link Safety in IEC 61139-2, are available.
