The Fieldbus Foundation, a non-profit organization that has been a driving force behind technologies in process automation, revealed recently that it will cooperate with the International Society of Automation (ISA) standards committee ISA100 to provide a common framework to enable multiple industrial communication and application protocols to run on a shared wireless backhaul network.

This is crucial for FOUNDATION for Remote Operations Management (ROM) development, according to Dave Glanzer, Fieldbus Foundation director of Technology.

In developing this unified digital infrastructure, which will deliver the architecture model and support ROM technology, asset management in applications and provide a quality service for end users, it has required Fieldbus Foundations’ expertise on interoperability of communications and application protocols with the ISA100.11a standard for implementing wireless systems in the automation and control environment.

It is a new solution that has met the automation industry requirements for a shared wireless backhaul; a technical report by the ISA100.15 Wireless Backhaul Networks Working Group reveals its scope, purpose and function.

As part of the solution, the FOUNDATION for ROM provided the physical media and HSE (High-speed Ethernet) communication that serves as the base-level network within the process automation environment to support the wireless HSE backhaul.

The FOUNDATION system architecture also provides the international standard for employing IEC 61804-2 EDDL (Electronic Device Description Language) and the function blocks for process control and open communications protocol to improve integration of ROM devices.

According to Dr. Penny Chen, co-chair of the ISA100.15 working group, it took a collaborative effort to expedite the work and complete the backhaul architecture model for interconnecting automation system elements over the network.

Glanzer adds that this is an important developmental milestone and one that took a joint initiative to deliver the backhaul transport network not only to incorporate FOUNDATION for ROM but for expanding the capabilities of Fieldbus Foundation's technology to support countless wired and wireless devices and remote I/O integration for several automation industries.

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