Multi-protocol device supporting wireless plant protocols

A plant wireless access point (PWAP) associated with a process plant, comprising:

• a first network interface configured to receive first and second data from a field communicator conforming to a standard wireless communications protocol;
• a second network interface configured to receive data from a first and a second plant device conforming to a wireless industrial automation protocol that defines an authentication procedure for provisioning plant devices;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• encode the first and second data received from the field communicator to conform to the wireless industrial automation protocol to provide first and second plant device encoded data, respectively;
• encode the data received from the first 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 first plant device encoded data to the first plant device,
• the second data received from the field communicator in accordance with the standard wireless communications protocol includes provisioning instructions and authentication information for the second plant device,
• the processor is further configured to communicate with the second plant device to provision the second plant device into a wireless network including the PWAP, the first plant device, and the second plant device using the authentication procedure defined by the wireless industrial automation protocol, 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 in a plant wireless access point (PWAP) associated with a process plant for facilitating communications between a first plant device in a process plant and a field communicator, that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• receive first and second data from the field communicator conforming to a standard wireless communications protocol, the second data including provisioning instructions and authentication information for a second plant device;
• receive data from the first and second plant device conforming to a wireless industrial automation protocol that defines an authentication procedure for provisioning plant devices;
• encode the first and second data received from the field communicator to conform to the wireless industrial automation protocol to provide first and second plant device encoded data, respectively;
• encode the data received from the first 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;
• send the first plant device encoded data to the first plant device;
• and
• communicate with the second plant device to provision the second plant device into a wireless network including the PWAP, the first plant device, and the second plant device using the authentication procedure defined by the wireless industrial automation protocol, and
• wherein the standard wireless communications protocol and the standard wireless communications protocol are different protocols.