Global acceptance for wireless standard!

International standard fulfills users’ requirements for simple, reliable and secure wireless communication in process measurement and control

WirelessHART® the  evolutionary communication technology built on the solid foundation of the HART® Communication Protocol, is achieving widespread global acceptance among end users and suppliers throughout the process automation industry. In just a few short years, WirelessHART has earned international standard status (IEC 62591Ed. 1.0, EN 62591) and has proven its ability to fulfill users’ requirements for simple, reliable and secure wireless communication in thousands of applications working in concert with millions of installed HART devices and systems worldwide.

“Enhancing the proven HART Protocol to include wireless communication capabilities greatly shortened the time required for industry acceptance,” says Ron Helson, Executive Director, HART Communication Foundation. “WirelessHART by design provides the same familiar ease of use and complements the HART instrumentation already installed in users’ plants. Its secure backward compatibility, interoperability and reliability make it easy for both users and suppliers to support wired and wireless devices connected to the same automation systems, operating side-by-side and using the same tools.”

Wil Chin, Research Director, ARC Advisory Group comments: “After an auspicious start, WirelessHART has crossed the ‘Chasm’ and is entering the ‘Early Majority’ phase of the technology adoption curve. The thousands of sites that have validated the value and performance of WirelessHART in pilot programs will accelerate its adoption in mainstream applications and drive healthy growth for the foreseeable future.”

End users attending recent Foundation-sponsored seminars describe WirelessHART Communication as: “very reliable,” “easy to set up,” “easy to configure” and “surprisingly forgiving–it even works beyond the recommended best practices.”

The WirelessHART standard supports star, point-to-point and/or mesh topologies and requires no specialized tools or expertise for deployment. The technology is easy to implement, provides built-in reliability in all industrial environments, and employs 128-bit AES encryption, multi-tiered, always-on security to protect the network and the data being transferred at all times. WirelessHART builds on proven international standards—the HART Communication Protocol (IEC 61158), EDDL (IEC 61804-3), IEEE 802.15.4™ radio and frequency/channel hopping, spread spectrum and mesh networking technologies.

Major automation manufacturers actively promoting WirelessHART technology and shipping WirelessHART products for process industry applications include ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, MACTek, Pepperl+Fuchs, Phoenix Contact and Siemens.