Gateway supporting transparent redundancy in process control systems and other systems and related method

A gateway comprising:

• at least one transceiver configured to communicate with a second gateway;
• and
• at least one processing device configured to:
• synchronize the gateway with information from the second gateway, the second gateway configured to operate in a primary role with at least one primary network address, the second gateway configured to communicate with at least one wireless device that uses at least one encryption key during at least one secure communication session, the information including the at least one encryption key;
• detect a switchover event at the gateway;
• and
• in response to detecting the switchover event:
• switch the gateway to the primary role and begin communicating using the at least one primary network address;
• and
• maintain the at least one secure communication session at the gateway after the gateway switches to the primary role.

A computer readable medium embodying a computer program, the computer program comprising computer readable program code for:

• synchronizing a first gateway with information from a second gateway, the second gateway configured to operate in a primary role with at least one primary network address, the second gateway configured to communicate with at least one wireless device that uses at least one encryption key during at least one secure communication session, the information including the at least one encryption key;
• detecting a switchover event at the first gateway;
• and
• in response to detecting the switchover event:
• switching the first gateway to the primary role and communicating using the at least one primary network address;
• and
• maintaining the at least one secure communication session at the first gateway after the first gateway switches to the primary role.