The process sector has been quick to respond to the ISA’s call for proposals to be considered by its Wireless Systems for Automation standards committee. However, the committee is hoping for yet more replies to ensure that any draft standard meets the needs of all end users.

In August the ISA announced that more than 20 companies from around the world had responded to the call for proposals from its Wireless Systems for Automation standards committee. This body is charged with establishing standards, recommended practices, technical reports, and related information that will define procedures for implementing wireless systems in the automation and control environment with a focus on the field level.

Guidance is directed towards those responsible for the complete life cycle including the designing, implementing, on-going maintenance, scalability or managing manufacturing and control systems, and will apply to users, system integrators, practitioners, and control systems manufacturers and vendors.

At the time, two of the committee’s working groups – SP100.11 and SP100.14 – simultaneously issued calls for proposals (CFP) not only to provide input to the committee but also to encourage a variety of industry experts, who may not be members, to participate in this process.

The CFP process solicited input to help solve critical issues associated with the deployment of wireless technology for industrial automation.

The ISA said it was delighted with the number and variety of responses, which saw proposals coming from the USA, Canada, Japan, China, Germany, and others.

The latest development in the process, announced as EPE went to press, is that the wireless systems for automation standards committee has completed nearly 20 case studies from end users and over 50 more such studies pending and in progress. The cases that have been completed, and those in progress, cover a variety of industries, including oil and gas, water, nuclear, food processing, chemical, aerospace, and automotive.

“As an end user, I’m thrilled to see the response of other end users from around the world,” said Greg LaFramboise of Chevron. “The use case solicitation, and the overwhelming response to it, will help the committee draft a standard that truly speaks to the needs of the end user community.”

The case studies include data about site locations, objectives, applications, and tasks required for the wireless application functionality. The users provide thorough site descriptions, which describe specific variables about the location of deployment for a wireless system. Examples of locations studied might be an oil refinery, oil drilling platform, food and other forms of processing plants such as a paper mill.

The studies also look at application, or what a wireless solution would accomplish. Some tasks that wireless might accomplish include tank level monitoring, perimeter security monitoring, or temperature and pressure sensing.

Finally, they capture data about how individual tasks are accomplished and what type and quality of service is required for each user. For example, a user might require periodic reporting of monitoring valves, alerting and alarming services, or device diagnostics and maintenance.

An initial use case interview takes about an hour to complete, and subsequent interviews take less time. Each component of the process can be submitted by a different contact within the end user company. End users are encouraged to volunteer to complete a study by contacting Lois Ferson, ISA standards manager, at lferson@isa.org, or by completing a survey located at www.isa.org/sp100survey.

• The ISA has also announced that its Manufacturing Interoperability Guideline working group has established a set of principles for converging the OAGi, ISA-95, and B2MML activities.