Managing networks in offshore production

A combination of mobile video and new sensors allows wireless communication to provide higher production availability at lower operating costs through improved monitoring. Wireless equipment used on an offshore platform must have certification for operating in environments in which sparks from electronic equipment could cause harm. The Wireless Industrial Networking Alliance (WINA) has developed guidelines for harmonizing the diverse wireless network standards required and enabling the various networks to keep traffic separate and transfer data between networks only when the architecture requires. Effective wireless networking on an offshore production platform will require a combination of wireless standards. The greatest threat to the wireless security is not malicious attack, but interference from overlapping wireless networks. The unified management framework is essential for the success of wireless communications and it remains overpriced if it does not play in the context of the business strategy.