The Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society’s ISA100 standards committee on wireless systems for automation has created a new subcommittee to address options for convergence of the ISA100.11a and WirelessHart standards. The subcommittee will contrast and compare the technology within the ISA100.11a and WirelessHart standards, building on the experiences gained with industrial applications of both standards, with an ultimate goal of merging the best of both standards into a single converged subsequent release of the ISA standard, the ISA said.
“This is an important development for industry since it furthers the mission of ISA100 to embrace relevant industrial wireless standards and serves the expressed needs of the end-user community,” said Paul Sereiko, president and chief executive officer of Airsprite Technologies Inc., a Marlborough, Mass.-based wireless technologies company, who has been invited, along with Dick Caro, principal of network consultant CMC Associates, Acton, Mass., to serve as co-chairs of the new subcommittee.
Just one, please
“On behalf of end-users, I believe I can safely state that our ultimate goal is to have a single industry standard for process applications. We are pleased that a path is developing to achieve that goal and that interim steps for achieving interoperable practical experience with both standards have been identified,” said ISA100 End-User Working Group co-chair Jim Reizner, of Procter and Gamble, who led a team of end-users, including Pat Schweitzer of ExxonMobil, Herman Storey of Shell Global Solutions, and others, which stimulated the formation of the subcommittee.
An early activity of the ISA100 WirelessHart Convergence Subcommittee is to prepare the WirelessHart standard in an ISA standard format by the end of July to facilitate the evaluations.
“We look forward to the prospects of evaluating WirelessHart for convergence within ISA100 and remain committed to the timely approval of the ISA100.11a standard in 2008,” said Jose Gutierrez, of Emerson Electric Co. Dave Kaufman, of Honeywell International added, “We remain committed to the final release of an approved ISA100.11a standard and to the subsequent collaborative evaluation of WirelessHart within the ISA100 family of universal wireless standards.”
Logical step
“Adoption of the ISA100.11a standard in 2008 will be an important step in fulfilling our ISA100 committee mission and of significant value to industry. This new subcommittee is the next logical step to helping industry fully achieve the significant benefits of wireless technology,” added ExxonMobil’s Schweitzer, who serves as co-chair of the ISA100 committee along with Wayne Manges of Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society
www.isa.org
