%0 Journal Article %J Technology Innovation Management Review %D 2013 %T Evolution of Wireless Sensor Networks for Industrial Control %A Arthur Low %K industrial control %K ISA100.11a %K punctuated equilibrium %K standards %K technology evolution %K wireless sensor networks %K WirelessHART %X Technologies evolve in a process of gradual scientific change, but the commercial application of technologies is discontinuous. Managers interested in technology evolution can integrate these contrasting ideas using a powerful theoretical framework, based on the concept of punctuated equilibrium from evolutionary biology. The framework, which enables the differentiation of the technical evolution of a technology from its market application, is used in this article to compare the two standards for wireless sensor networks (WSN) for industrial instrumentation and control: WirelessHART and ISA100.11a. The two WSN standards are the product of two different market contexts, which have selected different minimum viable technologies for evolution in their respective niches. Network security issues present some important selection criteria. Both WSN standards implement security countermeasures against localized wireless network attacks based on the application of the AES encryption standard, but some specific security threats – some local, others remotely launched – are only well-defended by the adoption of public-key cryptographic (PKC) protocols, which only ISA100.11a supports. This article concludes that the mainstream market potential of the Internet has influenced the evolution of ISA100.11a and will continue to demand that each WSN standard evolve in ways that are difficult to predict. %B Technology Innovation Management Review %I Talent First Network %C Ottawa %V 3 %P 5-12 %8 05/2013 %G eng %U http://timreview.ca/article/682 %N 5 %1 Crack Semiconductor Arthur Low is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Crack Semiconductor, a supplier of high-performance cryptographic silicon IP used in some of the most demanding security applications. Arthur has a number of patents in the field of hardware cryptography. He has worked for a number of IC startups as a Senior IC designer and Architect and gained much of his fundamental IC design experience with Bell-Northern Research in the early 1990s and with IBM Microelectronics in the late 1990s. Arthur has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta and is completing his MSc degree in Technology Innovation Management in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University. %R http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/682