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by Stephanie Neil, MA Editorial Staff Posted on Sunday, October 28, 2007 2:00:00 AM Sign Up to receive Daily News Alerts in your E-mail Inbox    | Abstract: | HART Communications Foundation and ISA move forward with efforts to harmonize their wireless networking protocols. |
| Keywords: | wireless communication standards, wireless networking protocols |
Wireless network technology is the next big thing to hit the factory floor. However, depending upon how the communication standards play out, it could be the greatest productivity enhancer or the biggest bottleneck. Remember the fieldbus wars, when multiple standards emerged and confused the market? Well, there is by no means a wireless war at this point, industry observers say, but there are two organizations -- HART Communication Foundation and ISA -- with two different wireless specifications. And now, the pair needs to figure out how to live together in peace. The HCF released its HART 7.0 specification in September, which includes a wireless communications protocol for transmitting data to device and sensor networks. ISA, on the other hand, is hammering out the details of its wireless standard, ISA SP100, set for release in 2008. SP100 will address control and I/O networks as well as device and sensor networks -- where HART currently plays. ISA says it will include HART as a subset, but the bits and bytes between the two are not entirely compatible, which has some companies wondering why there are two standards. The HCF camp says it has been working on this wireless specification since 2004 as a natural extension of its HART protocol for intelligent field devices. ISA, meanwhile, recently began working on its wireless initiative, which covers the same territory and more. [Click to continue] |
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