A control system comprising: a plurality of field devices, each field device having a unique field device address; a host computer for sending control messages to and receiving control messages from the field devices, each control message to one of the field devices including the unique field device address of that field device, a command, byte count, data, a check byte and physical layer overhead; and a wireless mesh network including: a gateway that interfaces the wireless mesh network with the host computer, wherein the gateway is configured to: remove the physical layer overhead, adding message sequence information, recalculate the check byte, translate the field device address to a wireless address and generate a wireless message containing that wireless address and the field device address, the command, a byte count, the data, the message sequence information, and the recalculated check byte, wherein the gateway is further configured to break control messages that are too large to be routed through a wireless communication protocol of the wireless mesh network into parts and sent as multiple parts; and a plurality of wireless nodes, each wireless node configured to route control messages for itself as well as for other wireless nodes in the wireless mesh network, each wireless node having a unique wireless address and including a radio for transmitting and receiving wireless messages, and a wireless device router configured to convert a received wireless message to a control message and routing the control message to a field device based upon the field device address contained in the received wireless message. a plurality of field devices, each field device having a unique field device address; a host computer for sending control messages to and receiving control messages from the field devices, each control message to one of the field devices including the unique field device address of that field device, a command, byte count, data, a check byte and physical layer overhead; and a wireless mesh network including: a gateway that interfaces the wireless mesh network with the host computer, wherein the gateway is configured to: remove the physical layer overhead, adding message sequence information, recalculate the check byte, translate the field device address to a wireless address and generate a wireless message containing that wireless address and the field device address, the command, a byte count, the data, the message sequence information, and the recalculated check byte, wherein the gateway is further configured to break control messages that are too large to be routed through a wireless communication protocol of the wireless mesh network into parts and sent as multiple parts; and a plurality of wireless nodes, each wireless node configured to route control messages for itself as well as for other wireless nodes in the wireless mesh network, each wireless node having a unique wireless address and including a radio for transmitting and receiving wireless messages, and a wireless device router configured to convert a received wireless message to a control message and routing the control message to a field device based upon the field device address contained in the received wireless message. a gateway that interfaces the wireless mesh network with the host computer, wherein the gateway is configured to: remove the physical layer overhead, adding message sequence information, recalculate the check byte, translate the field device address to a wireless address and generate a wireless message containing that wireless address and the field device address, the command, a byte count, the data, the message sequence information, and the recalculated check byte, wherein the gateway is further configured to break control messages that are too large to be routed through a wireless communication protocol of the wireless mesh network into parts and sent as multiple parts; and a plurality of wireless nodes, each wireless node configured to route control messages for itself as well as for other wireless nodes in the wireless mesh network, each wireless node having a unique wireless address and including a radio for transmitting and receiving wireless messages, and a wireless device router configured to convert a received wireless message to a control message and routing the control message to a field device based upon the field device address contained in the received wireless message.