Multi-protocol device supporting wireless plant protocols

A plant wireless access point (PWAP), comprising:

• a first network interface configured to receive data from a field communicator conforming to a standard wireless communications protocol;
• a second network interface configured to receive data from a plant device conforming to a wireless industrial automation protocol;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• encode the data received from the field communicator to conform to a wireless industrial automation protocol to provide plant device encoded data;
• and
• encode the data received from the received from the plant device to conform to the standard wireless communications protocol to provide field communicator encoded data, and wherein:
• the first network interface is further configured to send the field communicator encoded data to the field communicator,
• the second network interface is further configured to send the plant device encoded data to the plant device, and
• the standard wireless communications protocol and the standard wireless communications protocol are different protocols.

A non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium storing machine readable instructions for facilitating communications between a plant device in a process plant and a field communicator, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• receive data from the field communicator conforming to a standard wireless communications protocol;
• receive data from the plant device conforming to a wireless industrial automation protocol;
• encode the data received from the field communicator to conform to a wireless industrial automation protocol to provide plant device encoded data;
• encode the data received from the received from the plant device to conform to the standard wireless communications protocol to provide field communicator encoded data;
• send the field communicator encoded data to the field communicator;
• and
• send the plant device encoded data to the plant device,
• wherein the standard wireless communications protocol and the standard wireless communications protocol are different protocols.