Patent ID: 8924498

Claim:
A method comprising: physically disconnecting a first component from a first network, the first component redundant to a second component, the first component operating in a secondary redundancy mode, the second component operating in a primary redundancy mode, the second component coupled to the first network; updating at least one of hardware and software on the first component to allow the first component to communicate on a second network, the second network utilizing a different protocol than the first network; physically connecting the updated first component to the second network; synchronizing data between the updated first component on the second network and the second component on the first network; switching the updated first component from the secondary redundancy mode to the primary redundancy mode; and switching the second component on the first network from the primary redundancy mode to the secondary redundancy mode; wherein: the first and second components comprise controllers in a continuous distributed control system; control commands are continuously sent from or through at least one of the controllers to a process element in the continuous distributed control system during the disconnecting, updating, connecting, and synchronizing; the second component on the first network is configured to switch back to the primary redundancy mode; communications to or from the process element are sent through the second network when the updated first component is in the primary redundancy mode; and communications to or from the process element are sent through the first network when the second component is in the primary redundancy mode.