Patent ID: 7889747

Claim:
A system, comprising: a plurality of field units, each field unit operable to communicate with an associated plurality of wired field devices in a process control system using one of a plurality of first wired field device protocols; a gateway operable to wirelessly communicate with the field units, the gateway also operable to communicate using a plurality of second wired field device protocols, the gateway further operable to convert messages from the first wired field device protocol to at least one of the second wired field device protocols, the messages comprising information from two or more of the wired field devices and multiplexed by the field units; and a marshalling panel that is separate from the gateway, the marshalling panel operable to communicate with the gateway and with a first component of the process control system, the marshalling panel operable to convert the messages from at least one of the second wired field device protocols to a third wired field device protocol used by the first component of the process control system; wherein: the gateway comprises a plurality of wired protocol objects and a plurality of mappings, the wired protocol objects representing multiple first application models that define how communications occur according to the first wired field device protocols, each mapping representing a map of one of the first application models to one of a plurality of second application models associated with one of the second wired field device protocols; the first component of the process control system is operable to provide a control signal to one or more of the wired field devices via the marshalling panel, the gateway, and the field unit; and the gateway and the field units are configured to operate as a distributed multiplexer under the first wired field device protocol, the gateway configured to further multiplex the multiplexed information from the field units.