Patent ID: 7953842

Claim:
A method of receiving data from a plurality of process control system data sources communicatively coupled to an open network, the data comprising one of process control data and asset data, the method comprising: storing location information identifying the plurality of process control system data sources, wherein each of the process control system plurality of data sources includes a memory storing a software routine to communicate messages containing the data via the open network; collecting, by the process control system, one of process control data or asset data based on the stored location information, wherein collecting the one of process control data and asset data comprises: polling the plurality of process control system data sources using the stored location information, and receiving the messages containing the process control data and asset data via the open network; determining one of process control data needed to make a process optimization decision or asset data needed to make an asset optimization decision for the process control system based on a system configuration stored in the process control system, wherein the system configuration comprises configuration information detailing particular types of process control or asset information needed from the received plurality of messages; stripping, from the received messages, the data determined to be needed based on the system configuration, wherein one or more of the received messages include one or more of process control data and asset data that is determined to be not needed based on the system configuration, discarding the process control data or asset data that is determined to be not needed; aggregating the stripped data to form aggregated data; storing the aggregated data within a process control or asset information database; and one of (a) optimizing a process using the aggregated data, and (b) optimizing an asset using the aggregated data.