It may be controversial, but wireless technology is already being used in process control applications. How far and how fast will this trend go? Will we ever see an "all-wireless" plant?

No one would equate the cautious nature of process engineers to superstition. After all, they are often dealing with things that can blow up and kill people, among other dire consequences, so an insistence upon absolutely dead-solid technologies that have been proven to work before installation in a plant is not only prudent, but essential.

Yet, an idea that some might have considered almost blasphemous just a few years ago—that of using wireless technology for industrial process applications—is today gaining broader acceptance. Much of the recent focus is on wireless deployment for monitoring and data gathering based on wireless sensor networks (WSNs) using the WirelessHart standard, ratified by the Hart Communication Foundation (HCF) in 2007. Also gaining momentum is the ISA100.11a industrial wireless standard, developed by the International Society of Automation (ISA) and released last September.

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