This International Standard specifies a method of reliable and secure wireless operation for non-critical monitoring, alerting, supervisory control, open loop control, and closed loop control applications. This standard defines a protocol suite, including system management, gateway considerations, and security specifications, for low-data-rate wireless connectivity with fixed, portable, and slowly-moving devices, often operating under severe energy and power constraints. The application focus of this standard is the performance needs of process automation monitoring and control, where end-to-end communication delays on the order of 100ms can be tolerated.
This standard specifies the following:
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physical layer service definition and protocol specification;
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data-link layer service definition and protocol specification;
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network layer service definition and protocol specification;
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transport layer service definition and protocol specification;
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application layer service definition and protocol specification, including support for protocol tunneling and gateways;
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security and security management;
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provisioning and configuration;
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network management; and
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additive communication role profiles (i.e., one or more can be selected concurrently).
Functionality above the application layer of the OSI Basic Reference Model, such as the so-called User Layer and different profiles for functionality at that layer, is not addressed. However, it is discussed briefly in AnnexA.