Honeywell On ISA100 / Wireless
November 01, 2016
Phil Ng, Honeywell Senior Product Manager Wireless Instrumentation, works out of Honeywell's Arizona office. Photo courtesy of Erin Patricia.
Honeywell Process Solutions actively participates in the standards making bodies, including organizations like ISA and IEC as well as relevant industry consortia such as FCG, OPC, WCI, etc. Presently, they are an ISA Corporate Partner and participate at the leadership level (e.g. Technical Search Committee). ISA consists of committees to address specific industrial automation topics and each committee consists of various working groups. Honeywell contributes technical resources both at the committee and working group level.
In particular, they are very involved in supporting ISA100, ISA’s committee for developing wireless standards. The ISA Edmonton Section tracked down Phil Ng, Senior Product Manager for Honeywell Wireless Instrumentation to learn more about ISA100 and Honeywell’s involvement in it.
Phil, can you explain what ISA100 is?
The ISA100 Committee is chartered by the ISA organization to define wireless technologies and procedures for implementing wireless systems in the process automation and control industry.
How have you been involved with the ISA100?
I have been one of the Honeywell representatives in the ISA100 Wireless working group for over the last five years. Additionally, I participate in the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (isa100wci.org).
Can you provide an example of how Honeywell supports ISA100?
A prime example is Honeywell’s participation in the ISA100 Committee, which was formed back in 2005. One of the first actions from this committee was to develop a standard for a wireless communication protocol to be used in the automation and control industry. To that effort, Honeywell’s technical experts participated in the various working groups under the ISA100 Committee and, most importantly, they contributed in Working Group 3 which was responsible for the development and release of the ISA100.11a standard. Honeywell now uses ISA100.11a as the basis of its OneWireless Network solution offering and continues to release products using this standard.
Can you explain what ISA100.11a is?
ISA100.11a is the official name of the wireless standard released by the ISA100 Committee and it defines the wireless communication protocol. To better understand the importance to the reference of “communication protocol”, Honeywell had previously released wireless devices with a proprietary protocol. From that experience, we recognized that more is involved than just sending bits of data over the air and that, as others recognize the potential for wireless, the industry would soon be faced with un-manageable set of wireless devices communicating (colliding) over a limited wireless frequency band. Thus a new communication protocol would be needed in order to address the process industries’ needs for reliable communications. A new communication protocol would be needed in order to potentially accommodate the most popular existing industrial protocols already in use. And a new communication protocol would be needed in order to support wireless network management, which is a more complex function in wireless than wired bound protocols. Therefore, the term “communication protocol” in this sense takes on the full communications function as defined in the OSI communications model, which is a model used in the telecommunications industry. It is more than just passing bits of data back and forth.
ISA100’s agnostic, open capability enables information from devices supporting other protocols such as HART to be encapsulated and conveyed over the ISA100.11a wireless network. Current manufacturers of ISA100.11a products have already proven the ability to use this feature to offer products that support HART, WirelessHART, and other vendor proprietary protocols
Beyond issuing a wireless standard, what else has ISA done to support industry from a wireless perspective?
Besides developing and releasing a new industrial standard, there is also the need to provide supporting services and products. For example, users and vendors want to be assured that products conform to the industry standard. So in 2006, ISA created the non-profit Automation Standards Compliance Institute (ASCI), to manage certification, conformance, and compliance assessment activities for the standards ISA produces.
In turn, the ASCI organization created the ISA100 Wireless Compliance Institute (WCI) to function as the operational group responsible for independent testing of the ISA100 Wireless standard and to assist with the implementation of the wireless standard by adopting companies. ISA showed tremendous foresight in recognizing that there are additional industry needs beyond just releasing a new standard with the formation of ASCI and then WCI.
For manufacturers to adopt and release products, a certifying body, like WCI, needs to exist and thus to support the standard. Users and manufacturers want the confidence that the product being used and released legitimately follow the standard. Users ultimately benefit from the marketplace of interoperable products.
From its inception, Honeywell has been an active supporter of WCI, participating as a Board Member, as a leader in the Technical Steering Committee, and as the global Marketing leader. Additionally, Honeywell contributes technical expertise and development programs to further WCI’s product offering.
How widely adopted is ISA100?
Industrial vendors and ISA recognize that there are other international standards producing bodies in the marketplace. ISA is just one of those international bodies and they work cooperatively with others like the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Working with ISA and IEC in 2014, ISA100 supporting companies assisted in the passage of ISA100.11a as an international standard by completing the IEC process to become an international standard. ISA100.11a is now also officially known as IEC 62734. Users and vendors now have assurance that products that comply with the IEC 62734 standard or the ISA100 Wireless standard can fully interoperate.
To fully grasp the adoption of ISA100 Wireless (IEC 62734), please visit www.isa100wci.org to see the number of vendor members and a listing of compliant products.
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