Skip to main content
Log in

Wi-HTest: compliance test suite for diagnosing devices in real-time WirelessHART™ mesh networks

  • Published:
Wireless Networks Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

WirelessHART™ was released in September 2007 and became IEC standard in April 2010 (IEC 62591). It is the first open wireless communication standard specifically designed for real-time process control applications. It is designed to the same standard as its wired counterpart for reliability and interoperability . To ensure the compliance with the HART™ communication protocol and the adherence to its strict timing requirements, all WirelessHART devices must be thoroughly tested and registered with the HART Communication Foundation (HCF). In this paper, we present Wi-HTest, the test suite developed to exercise WirelessHART devices, thus facilitating compliance assessment . We discuss the detailed architecture of Wi-HTest and highlight several critical features like packet handling with accurate timing control, fault data injection, and the virtual network approach for scalable test setup. We also describe a sniffer called Wi-Analys for capturing WirelessHART packets along with their timing information and a post process suite for analyzing the packets. These three tools together provide the complete compliance verification environment for WirelessHART. Based on the test specification developed by HCF, we presented several representative test cases for examining WirelessHART devices’ behaviors in different layers. These test cases in turn show that Wi-HTest is a novel and efficient test suite for verifying the compliance of WirelessHART devices .

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16
Fig. 17

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. In the following of the paper, we use “Host” and “Wi-HTest Host” interchangeably.

  2. In the following of the paper, we use “data link layer” and “MAC layer” interchangeably.

References

  1. Han, S., Song, J., Zhu, X., Mok, A. K., Chen, D., Nixon, M., et al. (2009). Wi-HTest: Compliance test suite for diagnosing devices in real-time WirelessHART network. In IEEE real-time and embedded technology and applications symposium (RTAS) (pp. 327–336).

  2. Vieira, M. A. M., da Silva, D. C., Jr., Coelho, C. N., Jr., & da Mata, J. M. (2003). Survey on wireless sensor network devices. In Emerging technologies and factory automation (ETFA).

  3. Song, J., Han, S., Mok, A. K., Chen, D., Lucas, M., Nixon, M., et al. (2008). WirelessHART: Applying wireless technology in real-time industrial process control. In IEEE real-time and embedded technology and applications symposium (RTAS) (pp. 377–386).

  4. Han, S., Zhu, X., Chen, D., Mok, A. K., & Nixon, M. (2011) Reliable and real-time communication in industrial wireless mesh networks. In IEEE real-time and embedded technology and applications symposium (RTAS) (pp. 3–12).

  5. Caro, D. (2004). Wireless networks for industrial automation. ISA Press.

  6. Callaway, E. H, Jr. (2003). Wireless sensor networks: Architectures and protocols. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Barrett, R., Gutierrez, J. A., & Callaway, E. H. (2003). IEEE 802.15.4 low-rate wireless personal area networks: Enabling wireless sensor networks, IEEE.

  8. Akyildiz, I. F., Su, W., Sankarasubramaniam, Y., & Cayirci, E. (2002). A survey on sensor networks. In IEEE communication magazine.

  9. Krishnamurthy, L., Adler, R., Buonadonna, P., Chhabra, J., Flanigan, M., Kushalnagar, N., et al. (2005). Design and deployment of industrial sensor networks: Experiences from a semiconductor plant and the north sea. In ACM international conference on embedded networked sensor systems (SenSys) (pp. 64–75).

  10. Song, J., Han, S., Mok, A. K., Chen, D., Lucas, M., & Nixon, M. (2007). A study of process data transmission scheduling in wireless mesh networks. In ISA EXPO technical conference.

  11. Song, J., Han, S., Zhu, X., Mok, A. K., Chen, D., & Nixon, M. (2008). Demonstration of a complete WirelessHART network. In ACM international conference on embedded networked sensor systems (SenSys Demo).

  12. WirelessHART, www.hartcomm.org/protocol/wihart/wireless_technology.html

  13. Hart Communication Foundation, www.hartcomm.org/index.html

  14. Bluetooth, www.bluetooth.com/bluetooth

  15. ZigBee Alliance, www.zigbee.org/en/index.asp

  16. IEEE 802.11 Task Group, grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11.

  17. IEEE 802.15.4 WPAN Task Group, www.ieee802.org/15/pub/TG4.html

  18. ZigBee Automated Compliance Test, www.seasolve.com

  19. Robustness tester for bluetooth, www.codenomicon.com

  20. Wi-Fi alliance, www.wi-fi.org

  21. Azimuth Systems Inc., www.azimuthsystems.com

  22. TDMA-Mesh Test Specification, HCF\_TEST-6, Revision 1.0.

  23. CINT, root.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/ROOT/CINT.

  24. DEMOJM Board, www.pemicro.com/fixedlinks/demoqetoolkit.cfm

  25. Freescale Coldfire, www.freescale.com/coldfire

  26. FIPS Publication 197, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), U.S. DoC/NIST, (2001).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Song Han.

Additional information

An earlier version of this paper appeared in [1].

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Han, S., Song, J., Zhu, X. et al. Wi-HTest: compliance test suite for diagnosing devices in real-time WirelessHART™ mesh networks. Wireless Netw 21, 1999–2018 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-015-0903-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-015-0903-6

Keywords

Navigation