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| WirelessHART |
WirelessHART (Highway Addressable Remote Transducer) is an open-standard wireless networking technology developed by HART Communication Foundation. The protocol utilizes a time synchronized, self-organizing, and self-healing mesh architecture. The protocol currently supports operation in the 2.4 GHz ISM Band using IEEE 802.15.4 standard radios.
Developed as a multi-vendor, interoperable wireless standard, WirelessHART was defined specifically for the requirements of Process field device networks. The standard was initiated in early 2004 and developed by 37 HART Communications Foundation (HCF) companies that included ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, Pepperl+Fuchs, Siemens and others. The underlying wireless technology is based on the pioneering work of Dust Networks, and the company's TSMP technology is considered a foundational building block of the WirelessHART standard.
WirelessHART was approved by a vote of the 210 member general HCF membership, ratified by the HCF Board of Directors, and introduced to the market in September 2007. On September 27, 2007, the Fieldbus Foundation, Profibus Nutzerorganisation, and HCF announced a wireless cooperation team to develop a specification for a common interface to a wireless gateway, further protecting users' investments in technology and work practices for leveraging these industry-pervasive networks. Following its completed work on the WirelessHART standard in September 2007, the HCF offered ISA an unrestricted, royalty-free copyright license, allowing the ISA100 committee access to the WirelessHART standard.
Backward compatibility with the HART “user layer” allows transparent adaptation of HART compatible control systems and configuration tools to integrate new wireless networks and their devices, as well as continued use of proven configuration and system-integration work practices. Building on the estimated 25 million HART field devices currently installed, and approximately 3 million new wired HART devices shipping each year, end users are already embracing the industry’s first unifying wireless field device standard. In September 2008, Emerson became the first process automation supplier to begin production shipments for its WirelessHART enabled products.
During the Summer of 2009 NAMUR, an international user association in the chemical/pharmaceutical processing industry, conducted an extensive, multi-vendor field test of WirelessHART to verify alignment with the NAMUR requirements for wireless automation in process applications. NAMUR reported that WirelessHART provides the flexibility, security, robust performance, coexistence with other radio technologies and device interoperability within a WirelessHART network that NAMUR's members should expect.
In April 2010, WirelessHart was approved by the IEC unanimously, making it first international standard for wireless, IEC 62591.