REPRESENTATION OF CONTROL SYSTEM TOPOLOGY AND HEALTH IN AN FDT FRAME APPLICATION USING DEVICE DTMS AND VIRTUAL DEVICES

摘要

Provided is a system configuration tool for execution on a computer and configured for managing physical field devices within a field device tool environment. The system configuration tool includes a communication device type manager (DTM) component and a first device DTM component configured for communicating, via the communication DTM component, with one of the physical field devices. The one physical field device has FDT capability. The system configuration tool also includes a second device DTM component configured for communicating, via the communication DTM component, with a virtual field device. The virtual field device is representative of another one of the physical field devices, the other physical field device being devoid of FDT capability.