Home | About ICEweb | Acronyms | Actuators | Alarm Management | Analysers | Books | Burner Management | Can Open | Charges | Control | Choke Valves | Control Valves | Condition & Machine Monitoring | Composite Valves | Coriolis Flow | Corrosion | Data Comms | Data Loggers | EX Web | Education | Electrical Web | Emission Monitoring| Employment | Enclosures | Fieldbus | Fire & Gas | Fittings | Flow | Forum | Foundation Fieldbus | Fuzzy Logic | HART | Hazardous Areas | Health and SafetyHeat Tracing & Bundles | HIPPS | Humidity | Hydraulics | ICEnews | Industrial Ethernet | Instrument | Instrument Enclosures,Sunshades & Supports | Instrument Valves & Access | Laser Instrumentation | Level | Links | Manufacturing and Automation Safety | Modbus | Motion Control | Multiphase Flow | New | Networks | News | New Technology | Oxygen Analysers | Oil in Water Analysers | Optical Fibre Instrumentation | PH Measurement| Profibus | Pressure | Pressure Regulators | Pressure Relief Valves | Register | Rupture Discs | Safety Instrumented Systems | Samplers | Sample Systems | Security | Severe Service Valves | Shutdown/ESD Valves | Simulators | Solenoids| Suppliers | Surge & Lightning | Technical Information | Terminals | Temperature | Test And Calibration | Tools | TubingUltrasonic Flow | Valveweb | V-Cone Flow | Wireless | Wish List | Contact ICEweb |

Whilst every effort is made to ensure technical accuracy of the information supplied on iceweb.com.au, Keyfleet Pty Ltd and its employees accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by error or omission from the data supplied. Users should make and rely on their own independent inquiries. By accessing the site users accept this condition. Should you note any error/omission or an article offends please do not ignore it, contact the webmaster and we will review, rectify and remove as necessary.

Get seen by the people who use your products!
THIS SPACE
can be yours

Wireless Technologies

Thanks to Emerson Process Management for the following links;
Emerson's PlantWeb University now includes a wireless curriculum - This is a fantastic resource.

Wireless Widens the View -  Jonas Berge - A wider window into the plant is now possible as previously "difficult to access" field data becomes easier to collect and transmit with the latest wireless technology. The practical and economical barriers to collecting more information from the plant floor and surrounding areas have been dramatically lowered by the emergence of reliable wireless field communications systems. The technology of transmitting information from stand-alone instruments can be put to use today, even in plants with legacy control systems. Information that was previously difficult or impossible to access in the past is now easily collected and transmitted from wireless devices to the plant control system.

Wireless Technology & Best Practices to Reduce Project Costs - Mark Menezes - Benefi ts of wireless seem obvious – “no wires”. Despite this, fewer than 1% of installed measurements in process plants and mills are wireless. Fortunately, real and perceived obstacles to wireless deployment are being overcome with improved technology, most recently the “self organising network”. Other obstacles are not based on technology, but on the lack of security, standards, and consensus on appropriate applications, so are best addressed with a discussion around “best practices”. Users can now consider adding measurements previously impossible to cost-justify, improving safety, reliability, efficiency and environmental compliance.

  Asset Management Leverages Smart Wireless Devices - Laura Briggs/Joseph Citrano III - Smart Wireless Devices generate diagnostics that extend the value of asset management systems.

10.09 Wireless Networking in Plant -Dick Caro -  The advantages of a mesh network are redundancy, increased total distance, and removal of the line-of-sight restriction. The reduced cost of Ethernet-based networks is driving this fast, low-level, and low-cost technology to the field and shop floor. Another Ethernet side effect is the application of wireless technology in the Wi-Fi group of wireless protocols. Wi-Fi is essentially wireless Ethernet. Any higher-level application layer and user layer can communicate via Wi-Fi at data rates up to 600 Mbps, without knowledge of the fact that it is on a radio link. From the ISA and InTech.

Wireless:  The Golden Age of Asset Management - Peter Zornio discusses the advancement of standards based field wireless technology.

Deploying Industrial Wireless Solutions - Wireless technology has not been widely adopted for in-plant applications. Concerns about reliability, security, and battery life of wireless devices have slowed adoption of wireless options even where traditional wired solutions were cost-prohibitive or operationally difficult. That's changing as improvements in wireless technology address these concerns.

Self-Organizing Networks: Wireless Topologies for In-Plant Applications -The topography of a wireless network is simply the way network components are arranged. It describes the physical layout of devices, routers, and gateways, as well as the data flow paths between them. Three of the most common wireless topologies for in-plant applications are star, mesh, and cluster-tree. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each, you can determine which topology is best for your specific application.

Wireless Technology Is Ready For Industrial Use -Thanks to Maintenance Technology and our sponsor MooreHawke
Wireless technology now provides secure, reliable communication for remote field sites and applications where wires cannot be run for practical or economic reasons. In this article, Moore Industries Applications Engineer Gary Mathur, discusses what must be considered when looking at wireless strategies.


Other Links

What a Mesh! Part 1 - The Ins and Outs Of Mesh Networking - Joel K. Young - The first part of this two-part article discusses the basics: what do you need to know about wireless mesh networking and what criteria you should use when assessing a mesh networking technology.
What a Mesh! Part 2—Networking Architectures and Protocols - Joel K. Young - In the second part of this two-part article we tackle network architectures and compare and contrast point-to-multipoint, ZigBee PRO (ZigBee 2007), 6LoWPAN, Wireless HART, and Digi Mesh networking protocols, laying out their key characteristics, benefits, and limitations.
Both parts thanks to sensorsmag.com and Digi International.

Making a Smart Wireless Decision - Wireless networks have become an essential part of communication in the last century. From the internet to mobile phones, this invisible technology is now one of the world's favourite buzz words. While consumers and commercial users tend to take immediate advantage of wireless technologies as they become available, industrial users have historically been a bit more cautious. This caution is generally due to concerns related to critical infrastructure security and reliability. However, if the right wireless solution is chosen, early adoptors of industrial wireless technology can have the best of both worlds – security and reliability while leveraging the efficiency and benefits of wireless technology - from Honeywell Process Solutions and PACE.

Wireless Devices in the Factory Automation – An Overview of Adoption Trends - Khadambari Shanbagaraman - Wireless devices are perceived as the next big technological wave in factory automation. However, the current adoption trends are moderate at best despite requirements for real time data, mobile workforce, remote access and flexibility in operation. This is mainly because the wireless devices are not found to be robust enough by end users due to concerns such as reliability, security and interoperability - from Frost & Sullivan.

Food and Beverages Industries go Wire Free -Khadambari Shanbagaraman - An increasing population and growing consumer demand for packaged foods has forced food and beverages industry to look at new technologies that provide flexibility, easiness of operation and constant tracking of the production process. Complete transparency is required along the production process for assuring consumers health and hygiene. This demands continuous monitoring and efficient traceability of the entire production process in the food manufacturing plant. Wireless devices provide answers to the aforementioned requirements in the Food and Beverages industry- from Frost & Sullivan.

Radio Theory De-Mystified - Brian Cunningham - With increasing demands placed on plant managers to reduce operating costs, wireless is presenting attractive alternatives to buried cable and conduit runs. The issue at stake in choosing this alternative is reliability, and trust must be established before users will confidently invest in this technology. This paper discusses the different types of radio that are currently in use with a focus on spread spectrum in process control applications. An explanation of how a radio works is followed by a discussion of fixed frequency, direct sequence spread spectrum, frequency hopping spread spectrum and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technology. Emerging radio standards are reviewed and there is a section on how to interpret specifications and how they differentiate one radio's performance from another. Classes of criticality for wireless applications will be studied. Range determinations, interference mitigation and multipath are addressed, along with issues surrounding the multitude of frequencies in use and the advantages and disadvantages of each - from the Wireless Industrial Networking Alliance.

HART - The Logical Wireless Solution- The HART objective is to establish a wireless communication standard for process measurement and control applications, this page details the present status and huge potential of this technology.

Why WirelessHART™? - The Right Standard at the Right Time - This paper summarises key aspects of WirelessHART, including several of the design decisions that make it the right choice for wireless process automation.

The Wireless Industrial Networking Alliance (WINA) is a coalition of industrial end-user companies, technology suppliers, industry organizations, software developers, system integrators, and others interested in the advancement of wireless solutions for industry. They have a useful series of technical papers covering various Industry Applications.

WINA, the Wireless Industrial Networking Alliance have launched a new website -  Until now, there has been no single resource that provides wireless networking information for industrial applications, making research a challenge for end users because of the fast pace of technology advances, new applications, and standards. WINA's website opens the lines of communication for the Association's work on wireless solutions by industry and by application, and has the capability to keep members of industry informed about standards developments and upcoming technical conferences through forums, discussion boards, and webinars.

This Resource Library has some excellent Wireless Technical Information - Thanks to  Millennial Net

Users fear wireless networks for control - Following is an item-by-item rebuttal of plant engineer’s vow: “Critical data will never transmit over a wireless link in my plant.” Fear and loathing on the technology trail - An excellent article From Dick Caro and the ISA/InTech

Wireless reliability in industrial automation - Two key considerations wireless technology and hardware device contribute to building mobile and wireless solutions that transform operations - From Scott Thie and Jeff White and  ISA/InTech

Strategic Implementation of Wireless Technologies - The evolution in wireless technologies has opened the door to a new class of plant automation architecture that offers adopters a significant strategic advantage. Driven by substantial and measurable cost savings in engineering, installation, and logistics, as well as dramatic improvements in the frequency and reliability of field data collection, automation experts and IT professionals are presented with an opportunity to deliver a major, positive impact to their respective company’s bottom line - from FreeWave.

In 2008, Wireless a No-Brainer - David Savells and Brent McAdams - Advantages of wireless I/O go far beyond the cost of wiring: Economies of scale, fail safe, flexibility, reliability, diagnostics and low power consumption - Historically, regardless of the industry, hardwiring has been the only option available for users to connect remote instrumentation assets in the field.However, new technology enabling greater use of spread spectrum radios gives companies the ability to connect remote instrumentation in the field without the need for a costly, wired infrastructure - Thanks to ISA/InTech.

Users want Happy Union with Wireless, but Doubts Linger - Patrick Schweitzer - When it comes to wireless technology, the user community wants simplicity, robustness, education to understand this new world, and coexistence among all players to make this the wireless world of our dreams. Yet as wireless picks up momentum in the industrial marketplace, users are still confounded by the potentials and pitfalls a wireless world can bring -Thanks to ISA/InTech.

The following papers have been sourced from Phoenix Contact;
The Reliability of Spread Spectrum Radio for Monitoring and Control in Industrial Environments
Antennas – A Brief Tutorial
Wi-Fi… Why Now? Exploring New Wireless Technologies for Industrial Applications - Patrick McCurdy, Phoenix Contact Inc.
Radio Waves - InTech Article -Davis Mathews
Wireless communication for tank farm applications - At this refinery, engineers and technicians researched wireless communication possibilities for increased efficiency and timer monitoring. They needed to determine whether reliable data transmission via radio would stand up to an environment with a high level of EMI, and if the cost of cabling a large area with remote storage tanks could be reduced or eliminated - from Phoenix Contact.

Oil and gas processor goes wireless on the LAN -Proper data protection is a mandatory requirement to ensure PAN communications' security and safety - While security remains as the major concern in the use of a industrial WLAN, or wireless local area network, it should be robust following a well defined standard and meeting the industrial safety and security regulations including premises protection and detection of rogue nodes like unauthorized access points (APs)- From InTech and the ISA

The following papers are from MicroStrain;
Wireless Systems Development for Distributed Machinery - Monitoring and Control - Anthony J Seman III, Michael E. Donnelly, P.E., Stephen Mastro, Ph.D. - This paper highlights the programs demonstrating the use of wireless technology for monitoring and control of shipboard machinery during the past 10 to 15 years at NAVSEA Philadelphia. This work includes the demonstration and testing of wireless systems hardware and software, and also the development of suitable architectures to fold such technologies into an overall ship machinery control and human interface that is highly functional and affordable.
Wireless Sensor Networks: Principles and Applications -Chris Townsend, Steven Arms Recent advances have resulted in the ability to integrate sensors, radio communications, and digital electronics into a single integrated circuit (IC) package. This capability is enabling networks of very low cost sensors that are able to communicate with each other using low power wireless data routing protocols. A wireless sensor network (WSN) generally consists of a basestation (or “gateway”) that can communicate with a number of wireless sensors via a radio link. Data is collected at the wireless sensor node, compressed, and transmitted to the gateway directly or, if required, uses other wireless sensor nodes to forward data to the gateway. The transmitted data is then presented to the system by the gateway connection. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a brief technical introduction to wireless sensor networks and present a few applications in which wireless sensor networks are enabling.
Wireless technical papers from MicroStrain ,  including strain gauges with wireless interfaces.
Power Management for Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensors - The objective of this work was to demonstrate smart wireless sensing nodes capable of operation at extremely low power levels.
Frequency Agile Wireless Sensor Networks - A wireless communications system capable of simultaneous, high speed data communications from a variety of sensors.
Wireless Strain Sensing Networks - A wireless communications system capable of simultaneous, high speed data communications, particularly adapted for use with conventional foil strain gauges.
Wireless Strain Measurement Systems - Applications and Solutions - This article summarizes the development of wireless micro-displacement & strain sensing systems for medical, civil structural, automotive, and aerospace structural health monitoring (SHM) applications.

The Beginner's Guide to Cellular Technology - The use of cellular technology for industrial applications is on the rise, but it can be difficult to differentiate between all of the options, standards, and carriers. Before deciding on a cellular solution, there are some basics that every system integrator needs to know. This article thanks to moxa.com covers;
-
What 1G, 2G, and 3G really mean
- Understanding CDMA, GSM, GPRS, etc
- Important questions to ask
- How to apply this knowledge

ControlGlobal.com's Walt Boyes talks wireless with Honeywell's Dave Kaufman, director of new business development for Honeywell's wireless solutions group. In this 19 minute podcast, Kaufman and Boyes discuss Honeywell's proposal for a product architecture, and a draft for the upcoming RFP from SP100. You have to register but it is worth it.

Vibration Energy Harvester-Powered Wireless Condition Monitoring - John Parker - Perpetuum Ltd - This interesting application note describes the steps necessary to design the power supply and energy storage circuit of a wireless condition monitoring sensor node.

This concise Question and Answer Article covers Wireless Advantages, Pitfalls, Best Practices, Wireless Terms, Security, Future, Comparison with Hard Wired Systems, Frequency and Operating Range - from Geof Brazier and BSB Wireless.

Industrial Wireless Networking- In this Industrial Wireless Networking webinar you'll learn all about the latest Wireless technologies in use for Industrial Wireless applications including IEEE 802.11 (Wireless Ethernet) , Bluetooth, and other wireless technologies.

Topologies for Wireless Instrumentation - To set the stage for wireless instrumentation, do you know how to get the signal from instrument to control system? Here’s a nuts-and-bolts guide to orchestrate your options for permanently mounted instrumentation - from Control Engineering.

Network, Organize Thyself - Industrial environments could benefit from reliability of self-organizing wireless networks - Gabe Sierra, Dan Carlson, Bob Karschnia, and Brandon Robinson - When process personnel hear the term wireless instruments, they immediately think, great, no wires. But how do you know if you are receiving good data on time, every time? To go a step further, what are the limitations of self-organizing wireless network reliability, and where should you apply it in a dynamic industrial environment? Can wireless field devices ever be reliable enough for today's complicated industrial environments - from ISA and InTech.

Radio Frequency Identification

The following references are from our valued sponsor Abhisam Software
RFID Case Study ebook -
This excellent 61 page technical reference has details on 25 different RFID applications from around the world. The password to the document is "abhisam".
The world's first FREE RFID e-learning course which is a no obligation , no strings attached, absolutely free RFID course, that can be downloaded to your own PC and you can view it without any restrictions at all! Plus it's a REAL e-learning course, NOT somebody's stale Power-Point presentation! It has plenty of flash based animations, graphics and text, with a self-assessment test. The visuals help you learn key concepts QUICKLY and EASILY.
-
Technical Paper on How to Achieve FDA Compliance on the Pedigree Requirement using RFID without having any sleepless nights or spending a fortune but still achieve a payback of less than a year. The password to the document is "abhisam".
-
E-learning course on RFID - This course clearly explains RFID technology, how it works, how it is ages ahead of bar coding and how it is applied to various businesses and industries. It includes basic concepts, RFID Physics, RFID Systems, Middleware and Systems, RFID and Applications and RFID Security and Privacy.
- M-learning course on RFID - This is a mobile ebook, which you can download to any mobile smart phone that runs Windows Mobile OS, Palm OS , Symbian OS or Blackberry. Alternately a PC version is available- This quiz book contains a set of 30 questions related to RFID technology.The level of difficulty for each question is different. Some are very elementary, whereas others require  a better knowledge about RFID technology to answer correctly. 

OTHER LINKS
Converting serial networks to Ethernet communications - New communications technologies have emerged that provide high-speed wireless Ethernet communications to field applications. From InTech and ISA.
RFID- The Technology and its Potential - An excellent 51 page document from  Interaction Design Institute Ivrea.
Guidelines for Securing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems- A 154 page technical guideline from the national Institute of Standards and Technology.
Improving Plant Production with Wireless Condition Monitoring - Jim Ralston - Machines may be in remote locations where network infrastructure is not available, or on moving platforms where hardwired network connectivity is not practical, this paper highlights that wireless communications is a networking alternative that offers installation cost savings, quicker deployment and even improved reliability in certain situations - ProSoft Technology, Inc
Using Operator Interfaces to Optimize Performance of Industrial Wireless Networks - The performance of wireless networks can change over time due to increased performance demands, changes in the radio frequency (RF) environment and changes in the physical environment. This article explores the use of a wireless diagnostic OLE for Process Control (OPC) server technology to embed diagnostic information in human machine interfaces (HMIs), thus optimizing industrial wireless network performance - ProSoft Technology, Inc
Wireless Security on the Plant Floor -Wally Gastreich -  Wireless networks can consist of many radio types based on the radio frequency and the modulation methods. Radios may be required to obtain a license to operate in an area or be part of the FCC approved unlicensed ISM band. Radio technologies in the ISM band are most commonly available supporting either “open” or proprietary standards. It is within the “open” standards such as 802.11 where most security issues are prevalent, this document discusses this - - ProSoft Technology, Inc
11.09Wireless Technologies take Personnel Safety in the Process Industries to a New Level - In modern times the Process Industries have implemented many strategies to improve the operational safety of plants to protect personnel and the surrounding environment, to the extent that accidents are thankfully few and far between. From Extronics.