Electronic Products - January 2019

A

s the IoT continues to expand, we

see a large interest in the use of

distributed sensor nodes in the

industrial space. However, many industri-

al applications fall into what is commonly

referred to as “brownfield” applications,

which require new hardware/software

solutions to co-exist with existing solu-

tions. In addition, many of these in situ

solutions may be more than 20 to 30 years

old. So how do you bring new technology

to an already extant install base?

First, we need to understand the

nature of the current problem set being

addressed. In the industrial space, we

are frequently talking about the online

monitoring of existing physical process-

es. These could range from monitoring

the temperature of the content in a crude

oil pipeline to monitoring the amount

of chlorine in water as it leaves a water

treatment facility. In the industrial

space, they tend to focus on simplicity of

installation and reliability of the sensor

technology. In some cases, the state of

the art may not have progressed very far;

that is, the good old way of doing it may

be good enough. In other applications,

there may be a significant advance in the

technologies that could result in a lower

cost of ownership and better reliability.

Next, we need to understand the con-

nectivity involved with the current sensor

system. This ranges from the type of physi-

cal connectivity (e.g., RS-232/422, RS-485,

20-mA current loop, Ethernet, etc.) to the

protocols. Some of these protocols could

be predicated on the use of synchronous

serial communications à la HDLC, Bisync,

DDCMP, X.25, and others. Or they may

be using other industrial standards such as

Key factors for design verification of

industrial IoT sensor nodes

BY MICHAEL ANDERSON

Director of Technology, The PTR Group

http://www.theptrgroup.com

IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK

Innovations impacting products, technology, and applications OUTLOOK 5

ELECTRONIC PRODUCTS • electronicproducts.com • JANUARY 2019