Glossary · Industrial wireless and positioning
ISA100 Wireless
Also known as: ISA100.11a, ISA-100.11a
German: ISA100 Wireless
In process automation, ISA100 Wireless is a wireless communication standard for industrial field instruments, published as ANSI/ISA-100.11a and as IEC 62734. It is based on IEEE 802.15.4 radios in the 2.4 GHz band, supports mesh and star topologies and uses IP-based networking (6LoWPAN).
- Industrial wireless
- Standards
- Process industry
In one sentence
ISA100 Wireless (ISA-100.11a, IEC 62734) is a wireless standard for field instruments with IEEE 802.15.4 radios and mesh support.
Example
Corrosion and vibration sensors on a pipeline rack send their values via ISA100 Wireless to a gateway connected to the control system.
How it applies
- Engineering: ISA100 Wireless is mainly used for monitoring applications in process plants, where cabling is expensive. Gateways and system managers handle network formation, security keys and scheduling.
- Commissioning: Devices are provisioned (joined with security keys) before they participate. Update rates are balanced against battery life.
- Operation: Wireless is typically used for monitoring rather than fast closed-loop control. Using it for control requires careful analysis of update rates and link reliability.
- Documentation: The documentation team documents provisioning, update rates, battery life under stated conditions and the gateway integration, and provides radio approvals for target markets.
ISA100 Wireless vs. WirelessHART
Both use IEEE 802.15.4 radios in the 2.4 GHz band, time-synchronized channel hopping and mesh networks. WirelessHART uses the HART application layer and is closely tied to the HART ecosystem; ISA100 Wireless uses IP-based networking and can tunnel other protocols. Devices of the two systems aren't interoperable.