7 security considerations – Weidmuller WI-I/O 9-K: Wireless I/O Transmitter v1.9 User Manual

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WI-I/O 9-K

v1.9


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Power for pulse input

Average pulse rate is 1 pulse per hour (0.0003Hz), so power required = 0.06 x 0.0003 per day

=

zero

Quiescent power

Power for quiescent current

=

3.4 per day * 365

=

1241 mAHr per year

Total power consumption per year =

15 + 526 + 0 + 1241

=

1782 mAHr

Expected battery life is

=

1700/1782

= 0.95 year

Note that battery life is shortened during configuration or diagnostics. When the serial cable is

connected to the WI-I/O K, the module does not revert to sleep mode and the power

consumption is considerably increased. These periods should be minimised if you are using a

battery pack.

2.7 Security Considerations

There are a couple of dimensions of security considerations:

• Failure to operate when required - or “operational reliability”.
The other WI-I/O 9-x modules use an acknowledgment and re-try protocol to ensure that the

transmitting module is aware whether the transmitted message has been transmitted reliably. The

WI-I/O K module is not able to do this, and hence does not have the same level of reliability.

However the ability to transmit each message multiple times does improve the reliability. A

“fail to receive” alarm at the receiver provide indication if the radio link has failed to operate.

• Malicious operation, or “hacking”
This is the problem most associated with security concerns - the ability for someone to access

information from a radio system by “listening-in”, or to cause damage by transmitting radio

messages to force outputs.

A security option can be selected during the module configuration to protect against this. The

security option (if selected) adds data encryption to radio messages. Modules in the same system

are automatically configured with the encryption key, such that only these modules can

understand each other. “Foreign” modules will hear the messages, but cannot decrypt the

messages. For more information, refer to section 4.3.7 of the WI-I/O 9-x I/O User Manual.

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