Process control configuration system for use with a profibus device network

A method of configuring a process control system including a controller, a first device network that uses a first communication protocol and a Profibus device network which has a Profibus device connected to a Profibus I/O card and which uses a Profibus communication protocol, the method including the steps of:

• creating a device definition associated with the Profibus device for storage in a configuration database, said device definition including information pertaining to a signal associated with the Profibus device;
• using a configuration documentation system to associate an indication of the Profibus device with a port of a Profibus I/O card to reflect the actual connection of the Profibus device to the process control system;
• assigning a signal tag for the signal associated with the Profibus device as connected within the process control system;
• downloading a configuration of the port of the Profibus I/O card to the Profibus I/O card;
• and
• configuring a control application to be run in the controller to use the signal by specifying the signal tag to be used by the control application.

A configuration system for use in a process control network having a controller, a first device network that communicates using a first input/output protocol and a Profibus device network that communicates using a Profibus input/output communication protocol, the configuration system comprising:

• a configuration database that stores configuration information pertaining to the first device network and configuration information pertaining to the Profibus device network;
• a data acquisition routine that builds a device definition for a Profibus device for storage in the configuration database, said device definition including information pertaining to a signal associated with the Profibus device;
• a configuration documentation system that enables a user to indicate a desired configuration by associating an indication of the Profibus device with a port of a Profibus I/O card to reflect the actual connection of the Profibus device to the process control network;
• a configurator that configures the Profibus device network based on the device definition of the Profibus device and on the indicated desired configuration.