Remote deployment and commissioning of workstations within a distributed control system

A system for facilitating remote commissioning of selected workstations in a process control plant, the system comprising:

• a plurality of process control field devices operating to process physical materials in the process plant to produce a product;
• a process controller coupled to the plurality of process control field devices, the process controller configured to receive first signals from the process control field devices and to send control signals to the process control field devices;
• a communication network;
• a configuration workstation coupled to the communication network, the configuration workstation comprising a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing machine-readable instructions, executable by the processor to:
• provide a graphical configuration system operable by a user to create control modules and function blocks for controlling the process control field devices, and to download the control modules and function blocks to the process controller to implement control of the process control field devices;
• receive from a user a specified configuration for a workstation coupled to the communication network;
• receive a selection of the workstation from a plurality of workstations coupled to the communication network;
• and
• cause the selected workstation to be configured according to the specified configuration, such that the workstation is operable to communicate with the process controller to implement configuration, operational, and/or maintenance functions within the process control plant.