According to Fieldbus Foundation Global Marketing Manager Larry O’Brien, “FOUNDATION technology has been built from the ground up for openness, and can support the rapidly changing world of technology in process automation. With WIO, we now have the ability to bring in the valuable diagnostic information from wireless devices, regardless of whether they are WirelessHART® or ISA 100.11a, into the open and standardized infrastructure of FOUNDATION fieldbus.
“Combined with the ability to handle remote I/O, this greatly extends the range and capabilities of FOUNDATION technology to encompass many more devices throughout the entire plant or facility, regardless of their communications technology. The business value lies in taking the large amounts data from these devices through HSE and turning it into useful information in an open environment. You will be able to enjoy the benefits of wireless networking and remote I/O along with the powerful infrastructure of FOUNDATION technology.“
Within the FOUNDATION fieldbus automation architecture, H1 (31.25 kbit/s) and HSE (100 Mbit/s) provide a distributed function block capability with HSE serving as a larger pipeline with increased speed and throughput based on industry standard Ethernet technology. WIO technology expands these capabilities by establishing open, non-proprietary specifications for a wired HSE backhaul network, a wireless HSE backhaul integrating various wireless gateways, and an interface to wireless field device networks.
Tools and resources now available to support the development of WIO devices include:
High Speed Ethernet Wireless and Remote I/O Specification: Defines a series of interoperable gateways to bring control I/O (both analog and discrete) back to plant automation systems over an international standard, high-speed network.
HSE Interoperability Test Kit (HSE ITK): Tests the functionality of an HSE device and its conformance with the FOUNDATION fieldbus function block and transducer block specifications. The HSE ITK’s test cases have been updated to Device ITK Profile 6.0 and now support the VC++ 2008 (v9) standard. The test kit also employs an all-new, intuitive user interface and updated HSE test function device application.
The WIO solution encompasses the existing HSE-RIO specification, allowing industrial plants to access high data requirement devices directly in the fieldbus host system via HSE. Utilizing gateways functioning much like a smart remote terminal unit (RTU), it brings all forms of conventional I/O into the native fieldbus environment easily. This solution makes discrete-in, discrete-out, analog-in, analog-out and FOUNDATION H1 available over a common Ethernet network.
At a WIO Validation Team meeting in November 2010 at the Fieldbus Foundation’s facility in Austin, Texas, the first WIO gateway interconnecting WirelessHART devices to a wireless backhaul network was successfully tested. The WirelessHART process parameters were mapped into transducer blocks in the gateway according to the specification, and communicated over the wireless backhaul network using the HSE protocol. As part of the proof of concept testing for WIO, the foundation’s HSE ITK system successfully tested the WIO gateway over a 300 Mbit/s wireless Wi-Fi backhaul network. Laboratory prototypes of WIO gateways from several leading automation suppliers are currently under test.
The next steps in the WIO program include final validation of the wired HART and WirelessHART interface specifications. This development will give automation suppliers the opportunity to develop full WIO gateways initially running on a wired HSE backhaul. At the same time, the Wireless Sensor Interface Team and Fieldbus Foundation/ISA Cooperation teams will work to finalize the first draft of the wireless backhaul specifications and address key requirements such as security.
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