Selective activation of field devices in low power wireless mesh networks
First Claim
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1. An industrial process control system comprising:
- a host;
a field device; and
a wireless network for routing wireless messages between the host and the field device, the wireless network including a plurality of nodes and a gateway, wherein the gateway wirelessly communicates messages provided by the host to the nodes and controls an On/Off activation schedule of the nodes;
wherein in response to a communication period initiated by the host with a selected field device, the node associated with the selected field device generates a command to operate the selected field device in a full power state; and
wherein the node associated with the selected field device maintains the selected field device in the full power state through On/Off cycles of the activation schedule until communication between the host and the field device is complete, at which time the node generates a command to operate the selected field device in a low power state until a subsequent communication period initiated by the host.
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Abstract
A control system uses a wireless network to provided communication between a host computer and field devices. The field devices are normally maintained in a lower power or sleep state. Only field devices that will be involved in a communication with the host computer are turned On and maintained On until communication between the field devices and the host computer is completed.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. An industrial process control system comprising:
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a host; a field device; and a wireless network for routing wireless messages between the host and the field device, the wireless network including a plurality of nodes and a gateway, wherein the gateway wirelessly communicates messages provided by the host to the nodes and controls an On/Off activation schedule of the nodes; wherein in response to a communication period initiated by the host with a selected field device, the node associated with the selected field device generates a command to operate the selected field device in a full power state; and wherein the node associated with the selected field device maintains the selected field device in the full power state through On/Off cycles of the activation schedule until communication between the host and the field device is complete, at which time the node generates a command to operate the selected field device in a low power state until a subsequent communication period initiated by the host.
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2. An industrial process control system comprising:
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a plurality of field devices; a host for sending control messages to field devices and receiving response messages from the field devices; and a wireless network for routing wireless messages among a plurality of nodes, each field device being associated with one of the plurality of nodes, wherein the wireless messages include content of the control messages and an address of a selected field device or content of response messages from the selected field device, the node associated with the selected field device generating a command to turn On the selected field device only in response to a control message from the host addressed to the selected field device, wherein the node maintains the selected field device in the On state through On/Off cycles of the wireless network until communication between the host and the selected field device is complete, a which time the node associated with the selected field device generates a command to operate the selected field device in an Off state until a subsequent communication period initiated by the host. - View Dependent Claims (3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of communicating between a host and field devices of an industrial process control system over a wireless network having a plurality of nodes that turn On/Off according to an activation schedule, the method comprising:
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generating at the host a control message addressed to a field device; generating a wireless message containing content of the control message including a node address; transmitting the wireless message over the wireless network to the addressed node associated with the field device; receiving the wireless message at the addressed node; extracting the content of the control message from the wireless message; generating a command to turn On only the field device to which the control message is addressed in response to the control message; delivering the control message to the field device; maintaining the field device to which the control message was addressed in the On state through On/Off cycles of the activation schedule associated with the plurality of nodes until communication between the host and the field device is complete; and generating a command to turn Off the field device to which the control message was addressed until a subsequent communication period initiated by the host. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of operating a wireless mesh network having a plurality of nodes capable of transmitting to and receiving messages from a field device associated with and selectively activated by commands generated by one of the plurality of nodes, the method comprising:
synchronizing the nodes of the network to a global regular active schedule that defines when messages can be transmitted and received by the nodes; generating commands to selectively activate only those field devices to which a message will be sent during an active period of the schedule; and maintaining those field devices to which a message is sent in an activated state despite the global regular active schedule associated with the nodes of the network until communication with the selected field devices is complete, at which time commands are generated to operate the selected field devices in a de-activated state until a subsequent communication period initiated for selected field devices. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A method of communicating messages in a wireless mesh network having a plurality of nodes and having a plurality of field devices, each field device associated with one of the plurality of nodes wherein an On/Off state of each field device is controlled by commands generated by the node with which the field device is associated, the method comprising:
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activating nodes to transmit and receive messages during an active period according to a global activation schedule; generating commands to control which field devices are turned On during the active period of the schedule based upon whether messages will be sent to the field devices during the active period; maintaining those field devices to which the message will be sent in the On state despite the global activation schedule of the nodes until communication with the field device is complete; and generating commands to turn Off the field devices until a subsequent communication period is initiated with the field device. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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Specification