One of the biggest benefits of the Honeywell OneWireless system is its ability to support multiple protocols for more flexibility, said Jose Huerta, senior global product manager, industrial networking & wireless, Honeywell, who spoke at the Honeywell Users Group meeting this week in Madrid. The mesh network eliminates wired devices and is one single secured network. “These reduce expenses and maintenance costs,” noted Huerta.
The Honeywell OneWireless infrastructure is capable of supporting ISA100 Wireless and WirelessHART field instruments, Wi- Fi devices and Ethernet/IP-based devices. The Wireless Device Manager (WDM) is a network gateway and system manager designed to offer secure and reliable communication. The Field Device Access Point, Gen3 (FDAP) provides wireless coverage for ISA100 Wireless and WirelessHART devices, while the FDAP Gen3 Plus (FDAP3P) is a field-upgradable version. The Process Control Access Point (PCAP) provides Wi-Fi IEEE, ISA100 and WirelessHART connectivity in a single integrated unit.
“OneWireless is easy to expand and easy to scale,” said Huerta, who discussed Experion PKS networking innovations, OneWireless and the Control Network Module in his update presentation. “We’re increasing the capacity of each access point. You’ll be able to leverage your existing infrastructure, so there’s no need for you to buy additional hardware, just licensing.”
Recent features of OneWireless R330 include the integration of real-time location, an FDAP capacity increase from 100 to 200 devices per access point, LoRaWAN transmitter integration via LoRa gateway and MQTT protocol integration with WDM. WDM data can be published to the MQTT broker, and WDM can subscribe to the MQTT broker using plain vanilla MQTT with no Sparkplug B. OneWireless supports LoRaWAN, ISA100, WirelessHART and Wi-Fi devices.
Going forward, the OneWireless R340.1 release in December will include increased infrastructure capacity, configurable FDAP redundancy, Sparklplug B support for the MQTT interface and SNMP support by extending the protocols, centralized management system and improved migration paths. The estimated release of FDAP Gen3 series C1/D1 Zone 1 (FDAP31) is set for September, and it will have increased device capacity and additional power options.
Networking infrastructure
Honeywell-supplied networking platforms are based on models from switchgear manufacturers and specifically selected, tested and optimized for Experion PKS. These platforms are configured to Honeywell specifications for the optimal user experience.
Honeywell is working to qualify a lower-cost switch that can be a cost-attractive alternative for smaller systems. Various vendors are being evaluated. Many Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) versions of switches support Control HIVE and IO HIVE.
“Bringing lower-cost switches to the market is one of our higher priorities,” said Huerta. “The C1000 was not able to meet qualifications, so it’s not working for us to meet FTE technical requirements.” Its limited ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM) was the sticking point.
Honeywell collaborator OTN Systems’ XTran nodes use the multi-protocol label switching—transfer profile (MPLS-TP) protocol, so protection can be guaranteed to the network’s lowest level. XTran is being certified for Fault-Tolerant Ethernet (FTE) deployments. Some testbed scenarios have been certified, and the target is to certify XT, XTD and XTR series with FTE, explained Huerta.
The vision for the Experion Network Manager (ENM) is for it to become a simple user interface for managing the network with near real-time discovery and visualization of the network infrastructure. “You will be able to create baseline configurations and validate if they’re still in place and report deviations from the trusted baseline,” said Huerta.
ENM components include a simple-to-use browser-based interface, network visibility, containerized deployment, easy network-configuration generation, switch-configuration deployment and future integration with advanced services and tools, such as connectivity with Enabled Services and Cyber Insights.
The Control Network Module is a ruggedized Level 1 network device. L1 devices will be connected to the CNM. Qualified FTE switches will continue to act as the L2 core devices. As of February, the CNM R100 was qualified and tested. It is a four-port version for safety applications only in the Universal Safety Cabinet (USC). In mid-June, the CNM R101 will launch. Also a four-port version, it can integrate IO HIVE in the Universal Process Cabinet (UPC). The CNM R110 will be released in early September and will include an eight-port expansion module, creating a total of 12 ports, with the ability to integrate safety applications in the USC and IO HIVE in the UPC. In mid-December, the CNM R200 with Tofino Modbus TCP firewall will be released.
