Data pipeline for process control system analytics

A plant control and communication system for controlling a process within a plant, comprising:

• a multiplicity of process control devices disposed within the plant to control the process including a process controller that executes to control the process at an execution rate;
• a plurality of data processing devices disposed within the plant;
• one or more communication networks that communicatively couple the multiplicity of process control devices and the plurality of data processing devices;
• one or more data sources disposed within the plant distributed among the multiplicity of process control devices that collect raw data from the process control devices within the plant at a collection data rate greater than the execution rate of the process controller;
• a database communicatively coupled to the one or more communication networks for storing the collected raw data from the one or more data sources at the collection data rate;
• and
• a data pipeline having different portions thereof downloaded, from a configuration environment in which the data pipeline was defined, across a plurality of different devices within the plant, the data pipeline defined in the configuration environment to include a series of data processing modules that are communicatively connected together across the plurality of different devices in a particular communication order to thereby perform, during runtime, a data processing operation on process control data, wherein at least one of the data processing modules of the data pipeline performs a first portion of the data processing operation on raw data from one of the one or more data sources, and wherein at least another one of the data processing modules performs a second portion of the data processing operation on data received from one of the data processing modules within the data pipeline, and wherein at least two of the data processing modules operate at a rate faster than the execution rate of the process controller.

A process plant communication system for use within a process plant environment that implements a process, comprising:

• a process control network including a multiplicity of process control devices disposed within the plant to control the process and a process control communication network communicatively coupled between the multiplicity of process control devices, wherein one or more of the multiplicity of process control devices collects or generates process control data;
• a further plant communication network including a plurality of processing devices communicatively coupled together by a further plant communication network link, wherein at least one of the plurality of processing devices on the further plant communication network is communicatively connected to the process control communication network;
• a plurality of distributed data pipelines, each distributed data pipeline respectively defined, in a configuration environment, to perform, on process control data, a respective processing operation by using a respective series of different data processing modules that are communicatively connected together in a respective particular sequence across a respective plurality of different devices included in the process plant environment to thereby perform the respective processing operation on process control data during runtime, the different data processing modules downloaded from the configuration environment into the respective plurality of different devices, wherein each distributed data pipeline includes one or more data collection modules that collect process data from the process control network, one or more intermediate data processing modules that process the data collected by one or more of the data collection modules or another intermediate data processing module, and one or more ending data processing modules that produce data pipeline output data using data generated by the one or more intermediate data processing modules, and wherein at least two data processing modules of each distributed data pipeline are respectively located in different devices within the process control communication network and the further plant communication network;
• and
• a set of higher level analytic applications that are communicatively connected within the further plant communication network, wherein each of the set of higher level analytic applications subscribes to data generated by the ending data processing module of one or more of the distributed data pipelines.

A method of processing data in a plant having a process control network including a multiplicity of process control devices disposed within the plant to control a process and a process control communication network communicatively coupled between the multiplicity of process control devices, wherein one or more of the multiplicity of process control devices collects or generates process control data, and including a further plant network including a plurality of processing devices communicatively coupled together by a further plant communication network link, the method comprising:

• storing a distributed data pipeline within the process control network and in the further plant network, the distributed data pipeline defined, in a configuration environment, as a series of different data processing modules that are configured to be communicatively connected together in a particular order across a plurality of different devices of the process plant environment, and different portions of the distributed data pipeline are downloaded from the configuration environment into the plurality of different devices to thereby perform, during run-time, a processing operation on process control data, the plurality of different devices including various different ones of the process control devices and processing devices;
• collecting data at one or more of the data processing modules of the distributed data pipeline during on-line operation of the process control network;
• processing the collected process data in the data processing modules of the distributed data pipeline during on-line operation of the process control network;
• storing the processed data developed by the data processing modules of the distributed data pipeline in a computer memory device;
• and
• using the data developed by the data processing modules of the distributed data pipeline in a further application executed on a further processing device.

A method of configuring a data processing pipeline within a process plant having a process control network with a multiplicity of process control devices that operate to control the process and having a process communication network having a multiplicity of processing devices communicatively coupled together, comprising:

• storing, based on a configuration of the data processing pipeline defined in a configuration environment, a set of data processing modules within different ones of the multiplicity of process control devices and the processing devices, the configuration of the data processing pipeline defining a particular data processing operation to be executed by the data processing pipeline during run-time, and the storing of the set of data processing modules within the different ones of the multiplicity of process control devices and the processing devices including downloading different data processing modules included in the set of data processing modules to the different ones of the multiplicity of process control devices and the processing devices;
• communicatively interconnecting, based on the data processing pipeline configuration, the data processing modules in a fixed manner to create a set of three or more data processing modules communicatively connected in series;
• and
• configuring, based on the data processing pipeline configuration, the set of three or more data processing modules connected in series to perform specific types of data processing on data collected in the plant, the specific types of data processing included in the particular data processing operation, and the configuring of the series of three or more data processing modules including;
• configuring a first one or more of the series of three or more data processing modules within process control devices within the process control network as data collection modules to collect raw process data;
• configuring a second one or more of the series of three or more data processing modules as intermediate process modules to communicate with one or more data collection modules and to process the raw process data collected by the data collection modules to create intermediate process data;
• and
• configuring a third one or more of the series of three or more data processing modules as end-use process modules to communicate with one or more of the intermediate data processing modules to process the intermediate process data to generate end-use process data, including configuring one or more of the end-use data processing modules to provide the end-use process data to one or more subscribing applications communicatively connected to the process communication network.