Patent ID: 7986968

Claim:
An industrial process control system comprising: a host for providing control messages based upon a control system protocol; a plurality of field devices for receiving control messages based upon the control system protocol, each of the plurality of field devices having a field device address; a wireless mesh network for routing wireless messages between the host and the plurality of field devices based upon a wireless protocol, the wireless mesh network including: a host interface for receiving a control message addressed to one of the plurality of field devices from the host according to the control system protocol, wherein the host interface produces a payload that includes the control message and the field device address, selects from a look-up table a wireless address according to the wireless protocol based on the field device address, and embeds the payload within a wireless message that includes the selected wireless address; and a plurality of wireless nodes connected to communicate wireless messages through the wireless mesh network, at least one wireless node associated with two or more field devices, the wireless node having a field device interface and a corresponding wireless address, wherein a wireless message is communicated through the plurality of wireless nodes to the wireless node corresponding to the selected wireless address, wherein the field device interface associated with the addressed wireless node separates the control message from the wireless message and delivers the control message according to the control system protocol to the addressed field device as provided by the field device address included in the payload.