Inter-operable remote terminal unit

A remote terminal unit configured for communicating with one or more servers of a distributed control system over a plant automation network in an industrial plant and with a plurality of field devices, the plurality of field devices including a first set of field devices capable of communicating using a first wireless communication protocol and a second set of field devices capable of communicating using a second wireless communication protocol, the remote terminal unit comprising:

• one or more radio front ends for transmitting and receiving signals from the plurality of field devices;
• a plurality of configuration blocks for building a plurality of protocol stacks for a plurality of communication protocols;
• and
• a controller configured to (i) scan for a beacon message from a first field device of the plurality of field devices;
• (ii) determine a corresponding wireless communication protocol associated with the first field device, based on a header of the beacon message;
• (iii) identify a first subset of the plurality of configuration blocks for communicating with the first field device based on a configuration schema file, wherein the first subset of the plurality of configuration blocks are associated the corresponding wireless communication protocol of the first field device, and wherein to identify the first subset of the plurality of configuration blocks includes to determine a first mapping in the configuration schema file based on the header of the beacon message;
• (iv) build a first protocol stack for use with a first radio front end of the one or more radio front ends using the first subset of the plurality of configuration blocks, for communicating with the first field device from the plurality of field devices;
• and (v) set the first protocol stack in one of a normal power mode and a low power mode, wherein at least one component of the first radio front end is switched off during an inactive period when the first protocol stack is set in the low power mode;
• wherein the configuration schema file comprises a plurality of mappings including the first mapping, and wherein each mapping from the plurality of mappings is for building a corresponding protocol stack using one or more corresponding configuration blocks from the plurality of configuration blocks.