Regulations 1

[Jeremy6]

I work for a company that is currently developing Wireless systems that can be applied in the Petroleum industry.

I am wondering what regulations must be taken into account when designing sensors and such things.

Such things as if and when the wireless system needs to be shut down for whatever reason, what regulations does the transmissions have to comply, physical enclosures, and any regulations in this area.

If you know of any regulations or resources that I can find these regulations it would be of major benefit.

Thank you for your time,
Jeremy

 

[zappedagain]

For wireless systems you are dealing with FCC standards in North America or ETSI standards around the rest of the world.

On the transmitter side, you'll hit regulations regarding what frequencies you can communicate on, and how often. On the reciever side, you'll have emission limits (EMC) and immunity limits (EMI) to contend with.

Here are some good references to get you started:

47 CFR Part 15 -

http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/rules/

EMC Directive 89/336/EEC

http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/electr_equipment/emc/directiv/dir336.htm

that will lead you to:

ETSI EN61000 (there are several layers of suffixes, not all will apply)

and that will probably lead you to:

ETSI EN 301-489

ETSI EN 300-220 (and others depending upon the frequency)

http://www.etsi.org/services_products/freestandard/home.htm

If you are lucky you'll find an industrial application loop-hole around some of these regulations.


As far as the enclosure, the industrial applcation will put most of the requirements on it. If you want an antenna inside the enclosure instead of outside make sure the enclosure material doesn't attenuate your frequency band of interest. A quick test for this is to put your enclosure material in the microwave with a cup of water for a couple of minutes. If the water is boiling and your enclosure material comes out cool it didn't absove the microwaves and therefore is a good candidate to not attenuate the wireless signals.