IEC 62601: Wireless Networks for Industrial

Automation - Process Automation (WIA-PA)

Yu Chen
Outline
Introduction

IEC/PAS 62601: WIA-PA

Physical Layer

Data Link Layer

Network Layer

Application Layer

Security

Conclusion and Discussion

Background

Fieldbus war (1986-2002)

Modbus, Fieldbus Foundation, HART,

Each aims to create a universal protocol to meet all industrial demands

However, only one wireless solution can hardly meet different

demands in industrial automation

Coexistence of different technologies

Two Major Camps in Industrial Wireless Networks

WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks)

Variations of IEEE 802.11 standard

WPANs (Wireless Personal Area Networks)

Variations of IEEE 802.15,ISA (International Society of Automation) ,
and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)
WirelessHART (IEC-62591, 2010)

WIA-PA (IEC-62601, 2011)

ISA100.11a (IEC-62734, 2012)

Outline
Introduction

IEC/PAS 62601: WIA-PA

Physical Layer

Data Link Layer

Network Layer

Application Layer

Security

Conclusion and Discussion

WIA-PA History

Proposed by Chinese Industrial Wireless Alliance (CIWA) as WIA-PA

in 2007

Approved as a publicly available specification by IEC and renamed

as IEC-62601 in 2011

Approved by Chinese National Standard as a national standard and

renamed as GB/T 26790.1-2011 in 2011
Evolution of Industrial Wireless Technologies

WIA-PA adopts similar physical features as WirelessHART and

ISA100.11a
Typical WIA-PA Network
WIA-PA Devices
WIA-PA defines five types of devices
Host: provides high-level access to operators

Gateway: connects plant automation network and wireless network

Router: forwards messages toward gateway

Field device

Handheld device

WIA-PA supports redundant GWs and redundant routers

Primary device periodically updates information changed recently with
its spare device
WIA-PA Topologies
WIA-PA supports two types of topologies
Star: communication between a router and field devices, like a cluster

Mesh: communication between routers

From a high-level viewpoint, a field device communicates with the

GW through a mesh-star network
WIA-PA System Management
All communication is centralized by two rules implemented in GW
Security manager (SM)
All issues related to security (storage of keys, authentication, etc.)

Network manager (NM)

Core of WIA-PA network

Controls all communication over the network, from the scheduling table to
the choice of communication channels

The functions of management are implemented by the device

management application process (DMAP) in each device
Joining and leaving, network address allocation, routing config., communication
resource config., time resource config., performance monitoring, management
info. base (MIB) maintenace, and firmware upgrading.
WIA-PA Advantages
Compared with other industrial wireless standards, WIA-PA has
Adaptive frequency hopping (AFH)

Data packet aggregation

Flexible routing approaches and application modes

WIA-PA Protocol Stack
Outline
Introduction

IEC/PAS 62601: WIA-PA

Physical Layer

Data Link Layer

Network Layer

Application Layer

Security

Conclusion and Discussion

IEEE 802.15.4
Initially approved in 2003

De facto standard for the low-rate WPAN

Designed to support devices with limited physical features

Low energy consumption

Short communication range

Low power processing

Reduced memory

WIA-PA PHY is based on IEEE 802.15.4-2006

WIA-PA Physical Layer
Coexistence of WIA-PA with Wi-Fi
Outline
Introduction

IEC/PAS 62601: WIA-PA

Physical Layer

Data Link Layer

Network Layer

Application Layer

Security

Conclusion and Discussion

WIA-PA Data Link Layer (DLL)
Designed to provide real-time, secure, and reliable communications

Based on IEEE 802.15.4 DLL

Message integrity code (MIC) mechanism to guarantee integrity

Encryption to guarantee confidentiality

WIA-PA Data Link Layer
Data link sub-layer (DLSL): controls communication resource

MAC layer: handles sending and receiving data frames

Service access points (SAP): management of DLL and exchange of

messages between layers
MAC Layer
Based on IEEE 802.15.4-2006 MAC with beacon enabled

Service provided
Generating beacons (only GWs and router devices)

Synchronization

Security and reliability

Joining

Maintaining the guaranteed time slots (GTS)

Devices
Reduced-function devices (RFDs): field devices and handheld devices

Full-function devices (FFDs): GWs and router devices

Time Synch
One of the most important features implemented at MAC layer

Time source
Inter-cluster communication: GWs as time source

Intra-cluster communication: router devices as time source

Data link sub-layer
Interface between network layer (NL) and MAC layer

Major functionalities
Avoiding collisions

Improving throughput

Increasing bandwidth utilization

Coexistence, timeslot, and superframe management

Frequency hopping

Transmission of long-cycle data

Channel condition monitoring

Security
Timeslots
Configured by NM after a device joins the network

Three types of links

Transmit link / receive link
Allows only two devices (source and destination) to exchange packets

For intra-cluster and inter-cluster communication of periodic data

Shared link
Allows more than two devices to use the channel

For transmission of aperiodic data

Superframe
A collection of timeslots

Each superframe is repeated periodically at intervals (from 15.36ms

up to 251s) proportionally to the number of timeslots used

Comparison of 802.15.4 superframe and WIA-PA superframe

TDMA is used in intra-cluster and inter-cluster communication
IEEE 802.15.4 Superframe
A device accesses the medium listening for beacon messages sent
by the network coordinator

After receiving a beacon, transmit data using superframe structure

Contention access period (CAP): compete with other devices using
slotted CSMA-CA

Contention free period (CFP): used for applications with restrictive

requirements; CFP only supports 7 timeslots

Inactive period: used by devices to configure an operation mode with

low energy consumption
WIA-PA Superframe
Contention access period (CAP)
CSMA-CA

Joining process, inter-cluster management, and retransmissions

Contention free period (CFP)

TDMA

Mobility devices are authorized to communicate with the cluster head (router)

Inactive period of 802.15.4 is used for transmission in WIA-PA

TDMA
Frequency Hopping
Adaptive frequency switching (AFS)
Used for transmission of beacons and CAP and CFP

All devices use the same communication channel, which may switch depending
on external interference

Adaptive frequency hopping (AFH)

Used during intra-cluster communication

A channel is considered bad if retry times reach a threshold

Slow hopping compared to Timeslot Hopping (TH)

Timeslot hopping (TH)

Used during inter-cluster communication

Channels are changed per timeslot

To combat interference and fading

Frequency Hopping
Frames Priority
The correct operation of the DLSL is necessary to define priority
levels to the different types of frames

Four priorities
Highest priority (commands)
Diagnostics, configuration, control information, and emergency alarms

Secondary priority (process data)

Third priority (normal frames)

Lowers priority (non-emergency alarms)

Scheduling Rules
Transmission of Long Cycle Data
In WIA-PA, the update rate of router devices is configured to the
least update rate in cluster

Long cycle data: when a device has an update greater than the
update rate of its cluster head (router device)

Problem: when will a device with long cycle data transmit?

Transmission of Long Cycle Data
An Example

One router (update rate = 4s) and one field device (update rate = 8s)

Transmit

Dont transmit
Management Service
Provided by data-link-sub-layer (DLSL), including
Network discovery

Device joining and leaving

Channel condition monitoring

Information about neighbors

Outline
Introduction

IEC/PAS 62601: WIA-PA

Physical Layer

Data Link Layer

Network Layer

Application Layer

Security

Conclusion and Discussion

Network Layer
Interface between application layer and DLL, responsible for
Address assignment, routing, communication resource allocation,
management of the life cycle of packets, management for device
joining and leaving, fragmentation/reassembly, and end-to-end
monitoring
Addressing
During joining process, use 64-bit physical address

After joining the network, use 16-bit network address

Two 8-bit address numbers, i.e. X.Y.

X: cluster address (0-255)

Y: intra-cluster address (0-255)

Routing, Fragmentation, and Reassembling
NM generates all routing tables

Control field describes packet type (data, commend, or aggregation)

or whether the packet is a fragment packet
Aggregation and Disaggregation Services
Data aggregation: at application layer, a device can merge all data into a
unique packet when it has many application data to transmit

Packet aggregation: at network layer, a router device can merge all

packets into a unique packet when it receives packets from many cluster
members in a period

Advantage: less transmissions, more energy saving

Disadvantage: longer packet, higher probability of interfering

Outline
Introduction

IEC/PAS 62601: WIA-PA

Physical Layer

Data Link Layer

Network Layer

Application Layer

Security

Conclusion and Discussion

Application Layer
Provide an interface to user application objects (UAOs) and
industrial process

Two sub-layers: UAP and ASL

User Application Process (UAP)
UAP: an application process defined by network users

UAP may be defined by either IEC 61499 or IEC 61804,

independent of implementation

Several UAOs may coexist in the same UAP, each processing data
of different types of sensors, e.g. temperature, pressure
Application Sublayer (ASL)
Provide a transparent interface to communicate with distributed
applications (UAO)

The communication between two UAOs is defined by a virtual

communication relationship (VCR)

Three VCR application modes

Outline
Introduction

IEC/PAS 62601: WIA-PA

Physical Layer

Data Link Layer

Network Layer

Application Layer

Security

Conclusion and Discussion

Security
Open network standard has potential security risks

WIA-PA implements network security in several levels

AL and DLSL: data integrity and confidentiality

MICs: verify whether data was compromised, device authentication

DMAP: management and maintenance of key, each device has an

instance of DMAP

Cryptographic keys supported

Join key (JK): temporary key for joining process

Key encryption key (KEK): special key to encrypt the transmission of other keys

Data encryption key (DEK): protect data transmissions

Secure Join Process
The procedure is conducted by the SM

KJ should be JK in the figure below, KED should be DEK

Outline
Introduction

IEC/PAS 62601: WIA-PA

Physical Layer

Data Link Layer

Network Layer

Application Layer

Security

Conclusion and Discussion

Conclusion and Discussion
Adopt IEEE 802.15.4 Physical layer

Compared with WirelessHART and ISA100.11a

Adaptive frequency hopping (AFH)

Data packet aggregation

Flexible routing approaches and application modes

Various industrial wireless standards coexist