- April 20, 2016
- Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
The International Society of Automation (ISA) today announces the third edition release of Automation Network Selection: A Reference Manual by Richard H. (Dick) Caro, a highly acclaimed automation expert and ISA Life Fellow.
Caro, who serves as principal of an industrial network consulting and professional services company, says an updated edition of his popular book was needed to help bring clarity to a marketplace marked by a rapidly increasing number of automation networks.
“The number of automation networks continues to grow each year as suppliers discover new network applications,” Caro explains. “It tends to be in the supplier’s competitive benefit to create a new network protocol for their products, but the lack of network protocol commonality is a long-term disadvantage to customers.”
He says that suppliers submit documentation for their new networks to international standards committees to make their network a new standard, even if the new networks don’t interoperate with devices built for other standards.
“With so many standards available and each supplier building to their own proprietary networks now being promoted as “standards, users are left confused,” he asserts. “That’s why this third edition was needed—to create some clarity and help users make better decisions about the selection of equipment and communications networks.”
To purchase a copy of the third edition of Automation Network Selection: A Reference Manual, click here.