Patent ID: 8885593

Claim:
A method for assigning bandwidth to wireless field devices in an auxiliary data section of a superframe used by a wireless network, where the field devices are assigned a process control bandwidth in a process control data section of the superframe, said wireless network being provided in a process control system, the method comprising the steps of: receiving an operator selection of at least one node in the process control system via an operator terminal, the at least one node being at least one of a plurality of nodes presented to an operator via the operator terminal, determining, via a node determination element of a networking managing device, at least one field device implementing the functionality of the node selected by the operator, adjusting the bandwidth assigned to said at least one field device in the auxiliary data section of the superframe based on the received operator selection by reassigning one or more existing time slots in the auxillary data section of the superframe to said at least one field device, where said process control bandwidth is unaffected by the operator selection; and adjusting the bandwidth of one or more field device upstream or downstream of the selected field device according to the order in which the field devices are used in process control.