A multi-port serial NCAP using the IEEE 1451 smart transducer standard

The NIST-supported IEEE 1451 set of standards is being developed to unify diverse standards by providing a base protocol which allows interoperability between sensor/actuator networks and busses. A key feature of the IEEE 1451 standard is that the data (and meta-data or TEDS) of all transducers are communicated on the Internet with the same format, independent of the sensor physical layer (wired or wireless). We have developed a multi-port serial Network Capable Application Analyzer or gateway which connects any of several common serial buses to the Internet. The serial ports use the proposed revision of the IEEE 1451.2 standard, which is turn is based on the newly approved IEEE 1451.0 standard. The network is the Ethernet and the Internet protocol is HTTP (via TCP/IP) with a future option of STWS.