Interconnecting Heterogeneous Fieldbuses in Wide Area Industrial Environments

The Industrial Process Measurement and Control Systems (IPMCS) architect has a plethora of fieldbuses to select. Many different proprietary fieldbuses, each one supporting different standards and targeting particular market requirements, have been installed in the industry in different time periods under different circumstances. There is an always-growing need to integrate the control applications of the above fieldbuses making interoperability in device and fieldbus level as well as real-timelines the key issues in the area of IPMCSs. In this paper we suggest an approach towards interoperability in the fieldbus level. This approach, that would make possible the interconnection of two or more distant fieldbuses over a common backbone, comes to assist process and systems engineers in the development and configuration of distributed IPMCSs. We also present the first step towards implementation, which was defined to include the interconnection of two fieldbuses of the same type. We chose as a case study PROFIBUS due to its popularity and wide acceptance.