US 10,374,873 B2Granted

Process control communication between a portable field maintenance tool and a process control instrument

AssigneeFisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc.

InventorsTodd M. Toepke, Joseph D. Fisher, James R. Logerquist, Alan R. Dewey, Stephen Armstrong, Laura Briggs, Ronald Hempel

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Abstract

A platform-to-platform communication architecture for a process control messaging service in a process control system or other industrial setting allows stationary and portable industrial computing units to communicate with each other, in one-to-one and one-to-many communications, and across networks, including isolated networks inside the process control system or industrial setting and external networks. A requesting industrial computing device platform generates a message for a destination, or responding, industrial computing device in the communication protocol of the destination platform, and wraps the message in a communication protocol of the process control messaging service. The communication architecture decodes the wrapped message into the communication protocol of the destination industrial computing device and forwards the decoded wrapped message to the destination. The communication architecture allows for a variety of communication services, including, but not limited to, instant/real-time peer-to-peer messaging, time synchronization, automatic data transfer with an asset management system, communication with field devices via an asset management system and large data transfers.

Claims46

Dependent claims

A method of a portable field maintenance tool interacting with a field device within a process control system, the method comprising:

communicatively coupling the portable field maintenance tool to a process control asset management system via a wireless communication channel of the process control asset management system, wherein the process control asset management system is communicatively coupled to the field device via a digital process communication channel, and wherein the portable field maintenance tool and the process control asset management system each have a framework of a communication protocol of the field device layered above a communication protocol of the process control asset management system, and the protocol of the process control asset management system layered above a network communications protocol;
interfacing a client application on the portable field maintenance tool with an asset management system application of the process control asset management system, wherein the asset management system application is adapted to communicate with the field device via the digital process communication channel;
and
communicatively coupling the client application to the field device to provide the client application with read and/or write access to the field device via the process control asset management system and the digital process communication channel, wherein a communication from the client application to the field device is generated by the portable field maintenance tool in the communication protocol of the field device and wrapped in the communication protocol of the process control asset management system having a header comprising the identification of the field device and the communication protocol of the field device.

1 more element

A system for interacting a portable field maintenance tool with a field device within a process control system, the system comprising:

a portable field maintenance tool communication server adapted to communicatively couple to the portable field maintenance tool via a wireless communication channel;
a process control asset management server communicatively coupled to the field device via a digital process communication channel;
and
a portable field maintenance tool dynamic shared library having a distributed control instrumentation interface and adapted to receive raw commands from the portable field maintenance tool via the portable field maintenance tool communication server, issue device communication interface commands wrapping the raw commands to the field device via the process control asset management server, receive responses from the field device via the process control asset management system server, and issue the responses to the portable field maintenance tool via the portable field maintenance tool communication server.

1 more element

A portable field maintenance tool comprising:

a housing;
a wireless communication interface disposed within the housing, the communication interface adapted to communicatively couple with a wireless communication channel of a process control asset management system, the wireless communication channel configured to carry an encoded communication signal transmitted to or from the process control asset management system, wherein the process control asset management system is communicatively coupled to a field device via a digital process communication channel;
and
a communication circuit disposed within the housing and electrically connected to the wireless communication interface, the communication circuit adapted to encode the communication signal for the wireless communication channel by:
encoding a message from a client application executed on the portable field maintenance tool in the communication protocol of the field device;
wrapping the encoded message in a communication protocol of the process control asset management system, the wrapped, encoded message having a header comprising the identification of the field device and the communication protocol of the field device;
and
encoding the wrapped, encoded message in a communication protocol of the wireless communication channel.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/279,851Filed 29 Sep 2016 · continuation in part
Priority: 22 Jul 2016
Published: US 2018/0026840 A125 Jan 2018
Granted: 6 Aug 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

H04L 12/40032
Architecture of a communication node: details regarding a bus interface enhancer
H04L 41/0806
Configuration setting: for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
H04L 41/24
Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks: using dedicated network…
H04L 63/104
For controlling access to devices or network resources: grouping of entities

Family

Application15/217,112Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 22 Jul 2016
US 2018/0026840 A1Pre-grant publication · published 25 Jan 2018
US 10,375,162 B2Related patent
US 2018/0027054 A1Published application
US 10,374,873 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

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