Keywords: Fieldbus Foundation, Remote Operations Management, Wireless Backhaul, High Speed Ethernet, ISA 100.11a, WirelessHART.
Summary
ARC Advisory Group recently attended the Fieldbus Foundation Media Day event held at Lee College in Baytown, Texas, one of the Foundation's certified training facilities. At the event, the Foundation announced its new specification that extends the FOUNDATION fieldbus infrastructure into the world of remote operations management.
ARC research indicates that remote operations management is one of the fastest growing segments of the process automation business. However hurdles must still be overcome for users to implement a successful remote operations management strategy and realize all the benefits. FOUNDATION fieldbus's latest specifications address the remote operations needs of the process industries while maintaining a common infrastructure. The FOUNDATION for ROM approach brings ISA 100.11a, WirelessHART, Foundation Fieldbus, and wired HART devices together under a common standard infrastructure.
Transforming Remote Applications
Due to their unique nature, many of the remote operations management solutions now in place are highly customized and not easily configurable. To add to the problem, many organizations maintain an "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" approach to asset management. In 2007, Fieldbus Foundation began to lay out a project that would extend the functionality and infrastructure of Foundation Fieldbus to remote applications through remote I/O and wired HART. This was then expanded to include a wireless backhaul network capability and integration of leading industrial wireless networks such as ISA 100.11a and WirelessHART. The Foundation hopes to finalize the specification within the 2012 calendar year to extend their capabilities to countless wired and wireless devices installed in some of the world's harshest and most remote locations.
FOUNDATION for ROM aims to allow users to implement predictive and preventive maintenance strategies for their remote assets that previously were unable to support them. Whether operating on a wired or wireless network, users will be ability to pull device data into the FOUNDATION fieldbus infrastructure, which can provide a single source of data management, diagnostics, alarms and alerts, data quality control, control-in-the- field capability, and object-oriented block structure. FOUNDATION for ROM addresses various challenges in upstream applications, particularly for the oil & gas and water & wastewater industries, but can also be used in a wide range of remote applications including tank farms, mining operations, and even OEM skid-mounted equipment.
Evolving Needs in Harsh Environments
End users are beginning to recognize the potential benefits of extending their process automation systems into remote locations. Traditional RTU-based SCADA systems typically used in today's remote operations management applications often require massive amounts of customization, are not easily configurable, and data from intelligent devices may not be easily accessible when needed due to the lack of direct, bi-directional digital access for diagnostics.
Meanwhile, as natural resource production operations move increasingly to remote and unforgiving geographies, the resources must be transported over much longer distances under the most demanding conditions imaginable. Ambitious pipeline projects that are either planned or currently operating will connect some of the world's most remote locations to its most populous cities. The increased level of coordination required between pipeline operations and control drove development of a new set of specifications in the US: Title 49 - Transportation, Code for Federal Regulations, Part 195 – Transportation of Hazardous Liquids by Pipeline.
Users are growing more and more concerned with the prospect of deploying their already depleted and often undertrained staffs to remote locations. These remote locations can be expensive to get to and very dangerous to work in. The idea of reducing the number of personnel deployed in these regions becomes very attractive, since it can reduce operational costs, while increasing safety.
An Abundance of Challenges
Users face more and more difficult challenges these days. The workforce is shrinking, taking knowledge with it at an astonishing rate. This creates a "trickle down" effect to even more challenges. Most users find their operations and maintenance staffs reduced through either layoffs or retirements, making knowledge retention a major concern.
Ever-changing technology represents another challenge, forcing users to determine when and how to invest to obtain maximum value.
Users also need to pay close attention to both physical and cyber-security for their relatively vulnerable remote operations. Cyber security standards can play an important role here. The US Department of Energy also provides considerable guidance, including laying out 21 steps to secure SCADA networks that control American critical infrastructure. Among those recommendations is the mandate to steer clear of utilizing a proprietary protocol to protect a system. According to the DOE, "Some SCADA systems use unique, proprietary protocols for communications between field devices and servers. Often the security of SCADA systems is based solely on the secrecy of these protocols. Unfortunately, obscure protocols provide very little "real" security. Do not rely on proprietary protocols of factory default configuration settings to protect your systems."
Perhaps the most difficult obstacle to overcome is cost. Projects today are not only bigger than ever, but they are also being developed for remote locations that are difficult and expensive to access. Pipeline projects, deep sea offshore platforms, and gas processing plants are beginning to dot the globe. These massive projects are inherently more complex and difficult to manage, increasing capital costs. In addition, according industry sources, engineering costs for related industries are on the rise as well. As always, end users look for shorter time to commissioning and handover and faster time to optimum production, all while reducing engineering costs.
FOUNDATION for ROM Responds to the Challenges
FOUNDATION for Remote Operations Management adds to and extends the FOUNDATION fieldbus specification to support both wired and wireless infrastructure for remote assets and applications. FOUNDATION for ROM provides a direct link to device data and diagnostics through an open path for integration with multiple wired and wireless networks. These include traditional remote I/O, ISA 100.11a, and WirelessHART. FOUNDATION for ROM not only allows access to those data and diagnostics, it also allows it to be placed into the FOUNDATION fieldbus environment for data management and data quality. Reliability, safety, and security are key drivers for monitoring remote locations and devices. Effective remote operations capabilities enable users to minimize field travel and operational costs while dramatically improving the safety and efficiency of operations. This extension allows the range and capabilities of FOUNDATION fieldbus to encompass more and more devices inside (and outside) a plant, regardless of communication protocol or manufacturer.
A Collaborative Effort
The FOUNDATION for ROM development effort (initiative in 2007) involves collaboration between three development project teams: the Conventional I/O team; the Wireless Sensor team (responsible for integrating ISA 100.11a and WirelessHART); and the Wireless Backhaul team (a co-operation between ISA100 and Fieldbus Foundation). Each team developed its portion of the specification with a view toward future integration with additional networks. The idea is to allow an unlimited variety of networks to be incorporated into the FOUNDATION fieldbus environment over time.
Foundation for ROM Devices
The FOUNDATION for ROM specification can be embedded in a wide array of products, including remote terminal units (RTUs), controllers, and remote I/O modules. Once the specification is embedded in a device, its functionality expands to reflect the combination of traditional functionality found in wireless gateways, process controllers, and RTUs. These devices provide the protocol translation functionality of a gateway, but go beyond this with the ability to represent the device as a transducer block in the FOUNDATION fieldbus infrastructure, providing data management, alarms and events, data quality, function block structure, and other functionality.
Once the specification is complete in 2012, FOUNDATION for ROM devices will have to pass through the Fieldbus Foundation's rigorous testing and registration program to ensure interoperability.
Conclusion
Any technology is only as good as the value it provides. The key value of FOUNDATION for ROM is the ability to serve as an enabler for real-time remote operations management. With FOUNDATION for ROM, users can diagnose, either locally or remotely, the condition of their automation assets. While users deal with shrinking operations and maintenance personnel and assets being deployed in remote locations, remote operations management is quickly becoming a critical application.
Additionally, unlike most other solutions for remote operations management, FOUNDATION for ROM is highly configurable, reducing the need for customization, which can reduce overall implementation costs to a significant degree. At the field device level, utilizing analog technology results in unnecessary work processes due to the lack of direct, bidirectional digital access to devices for commissioning and diagnostics. Even when digital devices are used, proprietary technology at the application and network levels often means that much of the data collected from intelligent devices may be difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve. Instrumentation engineering alone can account for 20 percent of a user's automation project costs.
The diagnostics and function block capabilities available in the FOUNDATION fieldbus environment have helped many users avoid unscheduled downtime. Utilizing the predictive diagnostics functionality included in FOUNDATION for ROM technology, users can develop proactive predictive maintenance strategies to help avoid unnecessary maintenance trips to the field.
FOUNDATION for ROM can integrate with many functional areas typically encountered in remote operations, including asset health monitoring, safety interlocks, fire & gas detection, and video surveillance. The move to incorporate a variety of wired and wireless devices and network with the overall FOUNDATION for ROM will enable users to integrate all their process automation assets – both inside and outside the plant - seamlessly into a single framework for control, diagnostics, and data management. ARC believes that this has the potential to reduce both implementation and operational costs to a significant degree, while further enhancing safety.
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