Patent ID: 11960473
Assignee: FISHER-ROSEMOUNT SYSTEMS, INC
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H  Y | IPC G  H

Claim 0:
1. A computing device operating as a validating network node in a process plant on a distributed ledger network comprising:
a transceiver configured to communicate with one or more field devices each performing a physical function to control an industrial process in the process plant and to exchange distributed ledger data with peer network nodes, the distributed ledger data including transactions having process plant data including at least one of: (i) product parameter data including characteristics of a product manufactured at the process plant, or (ii) process parameter data for a process plant entity that contains, transforms, generates, or transfers physical materials within the process plant, identity data for an entity generating the process plant data, and a cryptographic signature to provide proof-of-identity that the entity generated the process plant data;
a storage media configured to store a copy of the distributed ledger; and
a processor configured to apply a set of consensus rules to the distributed ledger data received from the peer network nodes, the processor being further configured to append the distributed ledger data received from the peer network nodes to the copy of the distributed ledger if the distributed ledger data satisfies the consensus rules;
wherein a shelf-life of a product is predicted by assigning a quality score to each of a plurality of components of the product using the product parameter data or the process parameter data included in the distributed ledger for the product.