Patent ID: 8127063

Claim:
A system for arbitrating equipment ownership disputes in a process plant, the system comprising: a plurality of process control entities; one or more process controllers; a plurality of control modules executed by the one or more process controllers; a first control module associated with a first process control entity and a second control module associated with a second process control entity, the first and second control modules each defining a plurality of ownership arbitration queues, including; a pending acquisitions queue; a pending requests queue; an owned equipment queue; and an owned by queue, the first control module adapted to request to acquire ownership of the second process control entity by sending an arbitration token requesting ownership of the second process control to the second control module and storing a copy of the arbitration token in the pending acquisitions queue of the first control module; and the second control module adapted to receive the arbitration token from the first control module, store the arbitration token in the pending requests queue of the second control module, and determine whether the second process control entity is available to be acquired by the first process control entity, the second control module allowing the first process control entity to acquire ownership over the second process control entity when the second control module determines that the second process control entity is available to be acquired by the first process control entity, moving the arbitration token to the owned by queue of the second control module, and sending a copy of the arbitration token back to the first control module in an acquisition response message indicating that the second control module has allowed the first process control entity to acquire the second process control entity.