WirelessHART to IEC for PAS Approval

The WirelessHART Communication specification (HART 7.1) has been submitted to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC, www.iec.ch) for approval as a Publicly Available Specification (PAS). Released by the HART Communication Foundation (HCF, www.hartcomm.org) in September 2007, WirelessHART is a wireless communication standard designed to provide secure wireless communication in the field environment of industrial plant applications.

The IEC has initiated a worldwide ballot to approve the PAS after which the WirelessHART specification will begin the process to become an amendment to IEC 61158, the fieldbus standard. (HART Communication is already included in the application layer of this document.) The PAS ballot will last for two months, closing Sept. 19, 2008.

The WirelessHART standard provides a wireless protocol for process measurement, control, and asset management applications. Based on the HART protocol, it is compatible with existing devices, tools and systems. WirelessHART builds on international standards including the HART Communication Protocol (IEC 61158), EDDL (IEC 61804-3), IEEE 802.15.4 radio and frequency hopping, spread spectrum and mesh networking technologies.