Engineering Papers⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Manges, Wayne W

Publications and source records attributed to Manges, Wayne W.

Industrial Wireless Sensors: A User's Perspective on the Impact of Standards on Wide-spread Deployment

The role of wireless sensing technologies in industrial instrumentation will undoubtedly become more important in the years ahead. . Deployment of such instrumentation in an industrial setting with its heightened security and robustness criteria hinges on user acceptance of verified performance as well as meeting cost requirements. Today, industrial users face many choices when specifying a wireless sensor network, including radio performance, battery life, interoperability, security, and standards compliance. The potential market for industrial wireless sensors is literally millions of wireless instruments and it is imperative that accurate information for applying the technology to real-world applications be available to the end-user so that they can make informed deployment decisions. The majority of industrial wireless automation designs now being deployed or being considered for deployment are based on three different standards . The HART Communications Foundation s WirelessHART (IEC 62591), the International Society of Automation s ISA100.11a, and the offering from the Industrial Wireless Alliance of China known as WIA-PA (IEC 62601). Aside from these industrial automation standards, users must also be cognizant of the underlying wireless network standards IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.4, and IEEE 802.15.3a and their interactions with the three principal industrial automation protocols mentioned previously. The crucial questions being asked by end users revolve around sensor network performance, interoperability, reliability, and security. This paper will discuss potential wireless sensor applications in power plants, barriers to the acceptance of wireless technology, concerns related to standards, and provide an end user prospective on the issues affecting wide-spread deployment of wireless sensors. Finally, the authors conclude with a discussion of a recommended path forward including how standards organizations can better facilitate end user decision making and how end users can locate and use objective information for decision making.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Industrial Wireless Sensor Standards; A User Perspective

Future industrial use of wireless instrumentation will undoubtedly increase dramatically in the coming years. Deployment of such instrumentation in an industrial setting with its security and robustness criteria that are much more stringent than residential performance criteria hinges on user acceptance of verified performance as well as meeting cost requirements. Today, circa 2011, these industrial users are faced with many choices when specifying a wireless sensor network, including radio performance, battery life, interoperability concerns, and standards compliance. With industrial users standing on the precipice to order and deploy (literally) millions of wireless instruments, it is imperative that accurate information for applying the technology to real-world applications be available to the end-user.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Cybersecurity through Real-Time Distributed Control Systems

Critical infrastructure sites and facilities are becoming increasingly dependent on interconnected physical and cyber-based real-time distributed control systems (RTDCSs). A mounting cybersecurity threat results from the nature of these ubiquitous and sometimes unrestrained communications interconnections. Much work is under way in numerous organizations to characterize the cyber threat, determine means to minimize risk, and develop mitigation strategies to address potential consequences. While it seems natural that a simple application of cyber-protection methods derived from corporate business information technology (IT) domain would lead to an acceptable solution, the reality is that the characteristics of RTDCSs make many of those methods inadequate and unsatisfactory or even harmful. A solution lies in developing a defense-in-depth approach that ranges from protection at communications interconnect levels ultimately to the control system s functional characteristics that are designed to maintain control in the face of malicious intrusion. This paper summarizes the nature of RTDCSs from a cybersecurity perspec tive and discusses issues, vulnerabilities, candidate mitigation approaches, and metrics.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗