ISA100 wireless network unleashes the potential of industrial interconnection

ISA100 wireless network (also known as ISA100.11a and IEC 62734) is a wireless network standard developed specifically for industrial applications. It is based on the 802.15.4 radio transceiver specification, operates in the 2.4 GHz frequency band, and includes many extended features to meet the stringent requirements of process control applications, such as determinism, robustness, and security. ISA100 wireless network is suitable for a variety of process control applications, such as monitoring and open-loop and closed-loop control, especially for regulatory and regulatory purposes that require 100 millisecond latency.

The increasing demand for wireless communications in the industrial automation and control systems industry prompted ISA (International Society of Automation) to initiate the development of the ISA100 standard in 2005. The goal was to create a wireless standard that met the stringent requirements of industrial environments, especially in terms of reliability, real-time, and security.

In 2007, the ISA100 Standards Committee was formally established, with members including experts from leading automation companies, academic institutions and standardization organizations around the world. The committee's mission is to develop an open, interoperable wireless communication standard to support industrial automation and control applications.

System architecture and operation

The system architecture of the ISA100 wireless network consists of the following main components:

Input/Output (I/O) Devices: Sensor/actuator devices are able to send and receive messages without acting as relays in a mesh network.

Router: A dedicated routing-only device that relays messages within the ISA100 wireless network.

Security Manager: Usually part of a gateway implementation, responsible for enabling, configuring, and overseeing the security operations of all network devices based on security policies.

System Time Source: Maintain a common time source to achieve network-wide time synchronization.

Configuration device: A handheld terminal device used to configure, debug and configure new devices.

Gateway: A device that translates messages between an IPv6 backbone and a factory’s wired fieldbus network, such as Modbus, OPC, or PROFINET.

System Manager: Usually part of a gateway implementation, responsible for resource management, address allocation, communication scheduling, and setting up routing between wireless devices.

ISA100 wireless network is based on 6LoWPAN (IETF RFC4944 standard), which makes IPv6 network possible on low-speed and low-power wireless network. As part of IPv6 network, the backbone router is responsible for translating addresses between 6LoWPAN and IPv6 formats, compressing and expanding data packets, and IP routing.

Core features and benefits

Time diversity: The protocol uses time scheduling to achieve deterministic communication, with time slots centrally allocated by the system manager to optimize robustness and latency.

Frequency diversity: The protocol specifies different channel hopping schemes, where each device changes the communication frequency between consecutive time slots, increasing the probability of successful transmission and making the protocol more resilient in the face of channel selective fading and RF interference.

Path diversity: The protocol supports redundant routing, which increases the robustness of the network in the event of path failures. The system manager centrally manages and adapts routing based on diagnostic and statistical information provided by the device.

Scalability and flexibility: ISA100 wireless networks can typically scale to support 50 devices per backbone router and approximately 500 devices per system manager, providing a wide range of configuration options to meet the needs of different applications.

Security: The ISA100 wireless standard provides advanced security mechanisms at multiple levels of the OSI stack. Each message at the transport layer can be protected end-to-end to ensure message confidentiality, data integrity, and source authentication, while the link layer supports hop-by-hop protection.

Application cases and scenarios

Process Control and Monitoring: ISA100 wireless networks are widely used in process control and monitoring systems in industries such as oil, gas, and chemicals. These systems require high reliability and low latency communications to ensure safe and efficient operation of the production process.

Environmental monitoring: In the field of environmental monitoring, the ISA100 wireless network is used to collect and transmit various sensor data, such as temperature, humidity, gas concentration, etc., to achieve real-time monitoring and data analysis of the environment.

Smart factory: In the context of Industry 4.0, smart factories need to achieve seamless communication and data sharing between devices. The ISA100 wireless network can provide high-bandwidth, low-latency and high-reliability communication support, making data interaction between devices more efficient and accurate.

Asset Management: The application of ISA100 wireless network in asset management includes equipment status monitoring and fault early warning system. By real-time monitoring of equipment operation status, faults can be prevented and equipment utilization and production efficiency can be improved.

Implementation and Application

Silicon Labs offers a range of 2.4 GHz wireless SoCs, such as the EFR32MG24, that have the hardware and software features required to implement an ISA100 wireless device. The SoC includes a 2.4 GHz radio transceiver compliant with the 802.15.4 standard, with a sensitivity of -105.4 dBm in OQPSK DSSS mode using the ISA100 protocol. The EFR32MG24 has 1536 kB flash and 256 kB RAM, which enables the implementation of wireless stacks and applications on a single SoC, thereby reducing BOM costs.

On the software side, Silicon Labs provides a clean and easy-to-use programming framework for the RAIL (Radio Abstraction Interface Layer) library, which is the most direct interface to hardware-level customization of the EFR32 radio. Silicon Labs also provides SoCs for other wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which can be used to expand the current capabilities of the ISA100 radio.

Summarize

ISA100 wireless network is an industrial standard widely used in the process automation industry for monitoring and open-loop and closed-loop control applications. Although the standard is based on the 802.15.4 radio specification, the extended capabilities of ISA100 wireless add a lot of flexibility to meet stringent requirements such as determinism, robustness and security. By using 6LoWPAN in wireless nodes and IPv6 backbone, ISA100 wireless network achieves seamless operation and scalability.

Silicon Labs offers a range of 2.4 GHz wireless SoCs that meet these requirements, such as the EFR32MG24, which has the hardware and software features required to implement ISA100 wireless devices, making applications in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) field more convenient and efficient.