FF, HART, Profibus Team on Wireless

The Fieldbus Foundation (FF, www.fieldbus.org), HART Communication Foundation (HCF, www.hartcomm.org) and Profibus Nutzerorganisation e.V. (PNO, www.profibus.org), have formed a Wireless Cooperation Team to collaborate on wireless technology in the manufacturing and process industries. The new project is an extension of the organizations” collaboration on Electronic Device Description Language (EDDL) and another step to deliver consistent functionality to end-users.

The introduction of wireless technology into the manufacturing and process industries will require suppliers, end-users, and international standards bodies to address technical issues related to wireless applications. FF, HART, and PNO are working together in the interest of establishing a common, open standard. The intent of the collaboration is to facilitate the acceptance of wireless technology.
The three organizations have agreed to develop a specification for a common interface to a wireless gateway. The organizations have also agreed to base their work on the WirelessHART technology of the HART Communication Foundation and the emerging ISA SP 100.11a standard. The project will develop use cases, requirements, and specifications for wireless communication with intelligent field devices in process measurement and control applications in the automation industries. The goal of the cooperative project is to create a common specification while ensuring complete compatibility with the existing wired versions of each participant’s technology.

As was done with their EDDL cooperation, the three organizations have also agreed to develop a common set of compliance guidelines for incorporation into their respective product registration processes.