At ISA Expo ...(goode sense)(new quality standards)

At this year's ISA Expo--as at Sensors Expo in June--much of the buzz centered on wireless networking.

"ABB sees wireless as one of the core technologies that will help our customers improve their operation and lower their costs," said a spokesman from that company. At a press conference hosted by the HART Communication Foundation (HCF), ABB joined other industry giants to promote the development of Wireless HART. According to HCF, the new standard will allow a wireless device to be integrated into the same host system as its wired counterparts. And, says Dust Networks, it will be amazingly easy to wirelessly enable a legacy device.

By the way, Emerson, which originated the HART platform, will incorporate Dust's Time Synchronized Mesh Protocol technology in new in-plant wireless field networks (and Dust is positioning to be the product of choice for other Wireless HART adoptees). HCF plans to produce a spec in Q1 2007 and to ratify in Q2.

All the movers and shakers with whom I discussed it say that Wireless HART will complement the ISA's forthcoming SP100 standard--and that is a very good thing.

The SP100 committee plans to release its standard in Q2 2008, with products based on it becoming available by Q4 2008. Meanwhile, the spec will be written beginning in Q1 2007 and submitted to the ISA Q3 2007 through Q2 2008. I've been impressed by the momentum of this group, whose membership now numbers around 300 individuals and whose subcommittees share chairmanship between end user and vendor representatives.

What About ZigBee?

While many say that ZigBee has not kept pace with the needs of industry (ZigBee does seem focused on building automation of late), it is the only sensor-focused wireless standard to be ratified, and the ...