"IIoT is just a platform—an architecture of technologies that enable data-driven, highly distributed applications with near-universal access, but it's the applications that deliver and value and benefits," said Peter Zornio, chief strategy officer at Emerson Process Management in his keynote address to Smart Industry 2015 attendees. "Real-world manufacturing relies on sensors, real-time data, logic and algorithms, which provide actionable data via networks using fieldbuses and, increasingly, IP-based networks.
"In the process industries, information about pressures, temperatures, flows and levels is displayed on supervisory control and data acquisition [SCADA] systems, and controlled using programmable logic controllers [PLCs], remote terminal units [RTUs] and distributed control systems [DCSs]. HART, FOUNDATION fieldbus and PROFIBUS are the main instrument-level communication protocols, but use of Internet protocols (IP) to feed displays and controls has been increasing since the 1990s. And, for the past seven years, we've pioneered wireless networking, which makes it easier to install sensors and other devices."