Wireless fieldbus management

• US 8,719,468 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2007
• Issued: 05/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABB AG (ABB Limited)
• Original Assignee: ABB AG (ABB Limited)
• Inventors: Keul, Thomas, Huck, Ralf
• Primary Examiner(s): SNYDER, STEVEN G
• Application Number:
  US12/161,607
• Publication Number:
  US 20090100202A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,660 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 710/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/44 Star or tree networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/4026 Bus for use in automation systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

The invention relates to a communication system for interchanging data in an automation system for communication between central and peripheral devices. A converter is connected into the communication path between the central devices and peripheral devices and being designed for line-bound communication with the central device and for wireless communication with the peripheral devices.

Claims

1. A communication system for data interchange in a technical automation installation for communication between central and peripheral devices, the communication system comprising:

a converter configured to receive input values from a panel;

a central device configured to receive the input values from the converter and send configuration data to the peripheral devices via the converter;

a plurality of controllers, wherein;

the converter is connected in a first path between peripheral devices in the technical automation installation and the central device, and has a predeterminable number of associated peripheral devices, and is designed for cable-based communication with the central device, and for wireless communication with the associated peripheral devices;

each of a plurality of second paths in the technical automation installation including at least one of the plurality of controllers for controlling at least a portion of the peripheral devices and being decoupled from the first path;

at least one of the plurality of second paths including at least one of the plurality of controllers for controlling at least two of the peripheral devices, the plurality of controllers being bypassed by the first path; and

the first path being arranged to provide communication from the converter to the central device for installation management of the technical automation installation and to provide communication from the central device to the converter for configuring at least a portion of the peripheral devices,

wherein at least one of the peripheral devices is connected to the first path and one of the plurality of second paths, the at least one peripheral device being configured to have cable based communication with at least one other peripheral device over the second path and wireless communication with the converter over the first path, and wherein the peripheral devices are field devices.

2. The communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the field devices can be configured via a communication link.

3. The communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the peripheral devices are input/output assemblies.

4. The communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the converter passes input values received from the associated peripheral devices to the central device, and sends output values received from the central device to the associated peripheral devices.

5. The communication system as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of controllers being bypassed by the first path is configured for communicating information used for installation management with one or more of the peripheral devices.

6. A system for communicating data in a technical automation system having a plurality of peripheral devices, comprising:

a first communication path including;

a converter configured to receive input data for configuring the peripheral devices; and

a central device configured to receive the input data from the converter and send configuration data to the peripheral devices via the converter,

wherein communication between the converter and the central device is conducted over a cable-based communication link and communication between the converter and the peripheral devices is conducted over a wireless communication link;

a plurality of second communication paths, each second communication path being decoupled from the first communication path and including;

a controller configured to provide communication between at least one respective peripheral device and the central device over a wired communication link; and

a third communication path including;

the converter, the central device, and the plurality of peripheral devices, wherein at least one of the peripheral devices is connected to the first communication path and one of the plurality of second communication paths, the at least one peripheral device being configured to communicate with at least one other peripheral device over the wired communication link of the second communication path and communicate with the converter over the wireless communication link of the first communication path, and wherein the peripheral devices are field devices.