Kazio Networks

As you may have already heard, the ISA (International Society of Automation) announced last week that it is ending its annual ISA Expo. It will be replaced by “Automation Week”, an event centered around seminars and training rather than trade show booths; held at the Westin Galleria in downtown Houston. Vendors will still be allowed to have booths but will be limited to one 10×10 space each and maximum of 100 vendors.

We did participate in last year’s show and was disappointed with the amount of attendees and the geographics of them. It seemed that the attendees just didn’t have a good mix geographically and were too concentrated — the majority of attendees seemed to be from Texas and the nearby states. The general consensus from those I’ve talked to this year weren’t any different. The event this year drew 8000 attendees, where only 200 registered for the educations programs and there was noticeably less exhibitor booths, a significant drop from the 2008 Expo.

Vendor neutral trade trade shows like ISA Expo seem to be rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Companies are participating more in targeted technology, vendor specific/automation based trade shows (e.g. Rockwell Automation’s Automation Fair). Companies are also leveraging the power of the internet and distribution channels in getting their product announcements out. With several more cost effective ways to announce product releases on the Internet, countless social networking outlets, and limited travel restrictions due to the economy, the lure of traditional trade shows is just not the same as it was. The increasing costs of exhibitor booths, hotel accommodations and the extra costs of booth amenities like electrical outlets, internet, shipping etc. also play apart.

It remains to be seen whether this new format will be embraced (considering the fact that the educational programs this year were poorly attended). The cost/quality of this type of show would be a factor in whether people would fly in for 4 days — ISA would have to make it extremely worth their while. A suggestion has been to move it out of Houston and host it in different states every year. Having it in different states tends to create mixtures of vertical industry focus. I have found that having it in Houston every year tends to shift the focus to the Oil/Gas related industry (for obvious reasons; although not purposely done). It will be good to have a change from that (unintended) focus. Having it in different locations could also play to their advantage as allows them to create a themed approach of the event based on geographical location.

The announcement wasn’t much of a surprise to me, considering the declining participation compared to Expos of previous years and in local ISA chapters too (one in particularly has disbanded in our region). My overall impression is that this announcement was sort of a rushed decision — it seems that they are putting a sudden stop to the Expo without a clear picture/direction of what they are going to do next year.

September 23, 2009 — Kazio Networks introduces the State of the Network service. It is a one day Industrial Ethernet assessment service to help create an initial network map of a manufacturing/ production plant and control system.

The service will document the current physical network assets and wired/ wireless infrastructure, detail the data activity within the network and test the infrastructure against industrial standards/specifications and recommended practices.

It would be useful for companies needing network audits, a detailed assessment of what their network consist of and may also help pinpoint problem areas within an industrial network.

This service complements Kazio’s other core services. It is meant as a quick service solution to those needing documented evidence for network improvement, optimization, management and maintenance.

About Kazio Networks

Kazio Networks provides turnkey Industrial Ethernet network solutions; offering full wired/ wireless design, installation, analysis, management and support services for discrete and process networks. Past project experience includes assisting the Pharmaceutical, Life Sciences, Food and Beverage, Wastewater, Aerospace, Automotive, Metal/Steel, Power and Energy sectors.

For more information, visit: http://sn.im/sotns or call: 484-334-2757.

The ISA Standards and Practices Board has approved the new standard “ISA-100.11a-2009: Wireless Systems for Industrial Automation: Process Control and Related Applications.” It is now published and can be found at http://www.isa.org/ISA100-11a.

Press release

Research Triangle Park, NC (9 Sep 2009) – The ISA Standards & Practices Board (S&P) has voted to approve the ISA-100.11a wireless standard “Wireless Systems for Industrial Automation: Process Control and Related Applications,” thereby making it an official ISA Standard. The approval of this major new industry standard by the ISA S&P Board certifies that ISA’s accredited procedures have been followed in the development of the standard.

The ISA-100.11a standard received final approval by the ISA100 committee in July of this year with 81% of the voting members approving, before being passed along to the ISA S&P Board. With the ISA S&P Board approval, the ISA-100.11a standard will now be submitted to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) for approval as an ANSI standard, and will be submitted to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for consideration as an IEC standard.

“The ISA-100.11a standard was developed by a committee consisting of over 600 end users and equipment manufacturers from around the world, and represents a truly consensus standard created in an open, unbiased forum by a global team of industry experts,” said Wayne Manges, ISA100 co-chair from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The ISA100 committee was established by ISA to address wireless manufacturing and control systems in areas including:

• the environment in which the wireless technology is deployed;
• technology and life cycle for wireless equipment and systems; and
• the application of wireless technology

“The committee has been very active in pursuing its charter and I am delighted that this initial standard has been issued,” said Manges.

The ISA-100.11a standard is intended to provide reliable and secure wireless operation for noncritical monitoring, alerting, supervisory control, open loop control, and closed loop control applications. The standard defines the protocol suite, system management, gateway, and security specifications for low-data-rate wireless connectivity with fixed, portable, and moving devices supporting very limited power consumption requirements. The application focus addresses the performance needs of applications such as monitoring and process control where latencies on the order of 100 ms can be tolerated, with optional behavior for shorter latency.

“To meet the needs of industrial wireless users and operators, the ISA-100.11a standard provides robustness in the presence of interference found in harsh industrial environments and with legacy
non-ISA-100 compliant wireless systems,” said ISA100 co-chair Pat Schweitzer of ExxonMobil. The standard addresses coexistence with other wireless devices anticipated in the industrial workspace, such as cell phones and devices based on IEEE 802.11x, IEEE 802.15x, IEEE 802.16x, and other relevant standards. Further, the standard allows for interoperability of ISA-100 devices.

The standard is available at www.isa.org/ISA100-11a. For more information on the full scope of ISA100 committee activity, visit ISA100.org or call +1-919-549-8411.

About ISA

Founded in 1945, the International Society of Automation (www.isa.org) is a leading, global, nonprofit organization that is setting the standard for automation by helping over 30,000 worldwide members and other professionals solve difficult technical problems, while enhancing their leadership and personal career capabilities. Based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, ISA develops standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; and hosts the largest conference and exhibition for automation professionals in North America. ISA is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation (www.automationfederation.org).

There will soon be a new cabling infrastructure standard for healthcare. TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) has proposed and started work on defining new requirements for healthcare facilities e.g. hospitals and clinics/clinical environments. The standard will target topologies for cabling, cable manufacture, distance requirements, locational/routing requirements for most healthcare systems.

Areas of focus (but not limited to) would be Patient Services, Surgery/Procedure/Operating Rooms, Emergency, Ambulatory Care, Women’s Health, Diagnostic and Treatment, Caregiver, Service/Support, Facilities, Operations, and Critical Care.

The working group has recommended that “work areas” for heathcare systems are expanded (as opposed to non-heathcare infrastructure standards) and that the required permanent links for each necessary cabling established.

The standard will also support biomedical systems (RFID, BAS, nurse call, security, access control, pharmaceutical inventory, etc.) that use, or have the potential to use, IP based infrastructure systems.

This standard is developed by the TR.42 Premises Telecommunications Cabling TR-42.1 Commercial Building Cabling Subcommittee.

NIST (National Institute of Standards & Technology) and MEL (Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory) has developed an open source test tool for Industrial Ethernet called Industrial Ethernet Network Performance Tool (IENetP).

Available through Sourceforge.net here, it allows users to test Industrial Ethernet TCP/IP systems that require deterministic operations. The current version analyzes network traffic and performance of a device on ODVA’s Ethernet/IP network only but NIST has said to be releasing additional versions for other Industrial Ethernet types (release date unavailable).

Test Tool for Industrial Ethernet Network Performance document (distributed by ISA)
NIST test tool download (Sourceforge.net)