Patent ID: 8719327

Claim:
A system for using wireless communications to monitor a process, comprising: a wireless communication network; a monitoring application located in a first device communicatively connected to the wireless communication network; and a process control device communicatively connected to the wireless communication network; wherein said process control device includes a processing unit that operates to obtain a series of values for a monitored parameter, each of the series of values for the monitored parameter corresponding to a measurement of the monitored parameter at a different time, compare a new value of the monitored parameter measured at a first time to a previous value of the monitored parameter measured at a time prior to the first time and for which a monitored signal was previously transmitted to the monitoring application to create a difference signal, compare the difference signal to a difference threshold, determine whether to transmit a further monitored signal indicative of the new value of the monitored parameter to the monitoring application based on whether the difference signal exceeds the difference threshold, and transmit the further monitored signal to the monitoring application via the wireless communication network when the difference signal exceeds the difference threshold, wherein the processing unit further computes a time difference between a current time and a time associated with the monitored signal previously transmitted to the monitoring application, compares the time difference to a time threshold, and transmits the further monitored signal indicative of the new value of the monitored parameter to the monitoring application via the wireless communication network when the time difference exceeds the time threshold even if the difference signal does not exceed the difference threshold.