Patent ID: 9683438
Date: 2017-06-20
CPC Classifications: E21B,H04L,Y04S

Claim:
1. A system for communicating with subsurface components, comprising: a surface host connected to a subsurface location; a subsurface host connected to the surface host by a communication link, the subsurface host configured to communicate with the surface host using a communication protocol; and a plurality of tools configured to be disposed in a borehole in an earth formation, the plurality of downhole tools communicatively coupled to the subsurface host via a communication network; wherein the communication network is divided into a plurality of network subsets, each network subset of the plurality of network subsets including one or more downhole tools, the plurality of network subsets including a first network subset and a second network subset, all of the one or more downhole tools in the first network subset configured to communicate using a first protocol, all of the one or more downhole tools in the second network subset configured to communicate using a second protocol that is different than the first protocol; and wherein the surface host is configured to generate a message to be transmitted to the subsurface host, the message including a first set of data structured according to the first protocol and a second set of data structured according to the second protocol, the second set of data encapsulated within the first set of data so that the first set of data is removable from the message without affecting a structure of the second set of data.