ISA100 11A DRAFT STANDARD PROGRESSES

Phil Black - PII Editor 28/10/2008

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The ISA100 Committee on Wireless Systems for Automation recently completed a committee ballot on the second draft of the proposed ISA100.11a standard on wireless systems for industrial automation: process control and related applications. The ballot essentially asked voting committee members to indicate whether they felt that the draft was suitable for issue as an ISA standard. The ballot also invited comments from non-voting members of the committee and the general public. This very open process of inviting all interested party to suggest revisions or improvements to a draft standard is a hallmark of the ANSI-accredited consensus process that is used by ISA in developing broadly supported industry standards.

The ballot was supported by 63% of the voters, which falls short of the required 2/3 approval, with a number of very constructive comments received. The committee is now embarking on a defined process of addressing the comments via suitable revisions to the draft. Any substantive edits to the draft will be re-balloted to the voting members for an opportunity to revise their vote. If the standard attains a 2/3 approval as a result of the re-ballot, then it will progress to approval by the ISA Standards and Practices Board prior to final publication. The target timetable is by the end of 2008.

In addition to the work on ISA100.11a, the ISA100 committee has activities underway with WirelessHART Convergence (ISA100.12), Trustworthy Wireless (ISA100.14), Wireless Backhaul Backbone Networks (ISA100.15), People and Asset Tracking and Identification (ISA100.21), and a group investigating Factory Automation.

For more information Tel: 001 (919) 990-9287 E-mail: jinfantino@isa.org