Wireless: War and peace?

20 July 2010

The wireless standards saga has entered a new chapter with Yokogawa’s launch of the “first” ISA100.11a devices, backed by claims that the rival WirelessHART standard had not made much headway in the market, despite an approximate two-year headstart.

As Joost van Loon, director, industrial automation at Yokogawa Europe, declared: “We see from our customer base that users are not really choosing WirelessHART … There is no significant installed base yet.”

But, said Bob Karschnia, vice president, wireless at Emerson Process Management, his company knows of over 1,400 sites where WirelessHART is in use, many with multiple networks, adding: “and we’re only one of at least 10 suppliers shipping products today.

“It’s puzzling how anyone could overlook such a significant installed base of WirelessHART networks … Doing so hardly seems like the right way to meet user needs.”

Karschnia want on to argue: “Users have voted with their wallets for the [standard] that’s already IEC-approved and installed in all industries and around the globe: IEC 62591 (WirelessHART).”

Meanwhile, on-going efforts at the ISA100.12 sub-committee to converge the two standards could go some way to bridging the divide between the two technology camps. It is expected to issue a report on developing specifications for making the two technologies compatible, including their systems of address.

“WirelessHART uses a proprietary hierarchical address system whereas ISA100 sticks with the IP v6 internet standard for addressing. Both of these issues can be addressed at the system level,” according to Neil Hankey, global marketing manager for field instrumentation at Yokogawa.

Declaring Emerson’s support for a single standard, Karschnia, said a Process Automation Application Profile in ISA100.12 that is based on IEC 62591 (WirelessHART) would “ensure an open and interoperable standard compatible with this large installed base.”