In an article in this issue titled ‘Wireless adoption in process automation’, ARC vice president, Chantal Polsonetti, elaborates on the way device-level wireless solutions are gaining momentum in process manufacturing – it is not all plain sailing.
The prospect of adding wireless devices to the process automation architecture is compelling from the perspective of business benefits and incremental operational improvements, while the advent of robust industrial wireless standards, in a segment traditionally served by proprietary solutions, has captured the attention of many end users. However, the reality of two competing standards is proving something of an obstacle to adoption.
As the WirelessHART and ISA100.11a standards gain footholds at the sensor level, ARC expects the majority of the process wireless market to gravitate away from legacy proprietary solutions. A migration away from standalone point-to-point installations will occur in favour of mesh-based, inherently redundant device level solutions that interface to a Wi-Fi-based plant or facility backbone.
Tighter integration of wireless implementations with the overall automation scheme is what is expected to drive this migration. While the addition of measurement points due to availability of wireless networks is attractive, the ability to integrate, analyse and act upon these additional measurements is reliant on integration with the overall control architecture.
Commentators like Jim Pinto have, for some time now, punted wireless as one of the next game changing technologies in industrial automation. The ARC paper certainly supports this: “Standardisation of industrial wireless sensor networks is one of the last frontiers in industrial device connectivity, but will have one of the most profound effects. The incremental value proposition for wireless networks in process manufacturing is much larger than for serial and Ethernet-based networks.”
This last sentence is heavy with promises of profit, so it is no surprise that end users in a traditionally conservative and risk-averse market segment would be concerned. Availability of two largely overlapping device-level wireless standards confuses the situation on both the supply and demand sides. Firstly, suppliers must pick which ‘horse’ to ride, and secondly, end users are putting pressure on the standards organisation for some type of converged solution. ARC does not expect a converged solution will appear in the short term, although both camps have shown support for the idea through the appointment of special task groups.
In the short term, hybrid devices like adapters and gateways are appearing as the first ‘standards-compliant’ offerings. In an article we published last December, ‘One way wireless’, contributing editor Andrew Ashton offered these conclusions:
“Which technology would I plump for? If the majority of my wired field instruments were already HART devices I would stick with HART. Otherwise I would go the ISA-100.11a route.
“Would I bet on complete convergence and interoperability between WirelessHART and ISA-100.11a field instruments and infrastructure in the next five years? No.
“Would my investment be maintainable and the technology selected supportable for 10 years? Almost certainly.”
So what are you waiting for?
Scada review 2012
This issue of SA Instrumentation and Control is bigger than usual due to some overwhelming interest in the annual scada reviews. Edited as usual by Andrew Ashton, the questionnaire included end user, system integrator and vendor responses to provide readers with multiple perspectives on the systems under review. This year we received responses from eight participants, with most of the projects involving technology upgrades and tag counts anywhere from 1000 to 60 000.
On behalf of our readers, thanks to all the end users, SIs and vendors that participated in the review this year, and on behalf of myself, thanks to everyone – editorial, sales and production – that helped to make this another success.
Steven Meyer
Editor: SA Instrumentation & Control
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