Patent ID: 8578059

Claim:
A method for deploying a set of deployment packages, corresponding to a configuration for a process control system, to a set of connected field devices, the method comprising the steps of: storing the set of deployment packages within a configuration storage; initiating deployment of the set of deployment packages from the configuration storage; in response to the initiating deployment step, commencing an automated cascaded deployment of the set of deployment packages to the set of connected field devices, the cascaded deployment comprising the substeps of: first deploying the sets of deployment packages to a set of control module assemblies; first maintaining, by the set of control module assemblies, received portions of the set of deployment packages to facilitate distribution of the received portions of the set of deployment packages to identified field devices of the set of connected field devices; second deploying, by the set of control module assemblies, the received portions of the set of deployment packages in parallel to a set of I/O module assemblies, the I/O module assemblies being communicatively connected to a set of field devices, wherein the received portions of the set of deployment packages deployed to the I/O module assemblies comprise sub-portions of the set of deployment packages; second maintaining, by the set of I/O module assemblies, the received sub-portions of the set of deployment packages to facilitate forwarding of the received sub-portions of the set of deployment packages to the communicatively connected set of field devices; and third deploying, by the set of I/O module assemblies, the received sub-portions of the set of deployment packages to the communicatively connected set of field devices, the received sub-portions entering an operational state from a non-operational state upon receiving a notification to leave the non-operational state, the notification being automatically propagated in a cascaded manner via the set of I/O module assemblies to the received sub-portions; upon deploying the deployment package to the set of field devices, continuously scanning by the I/O module assemblies to detect the target field device for the deployment package, wherein the set of I/O module assemblies include scanning logic; and downloading information associated with the deployment package to the detected target field device in response to the scanning.