Method and apparatus transferring arbitrary binary data over a fieldbus network

摘要

A data transfer system utilizes one or more standard parameters in a fieldbus messaging system as a mechanism to move arbitrarily large blocks of arbitrary binary data into and out of a field device. The preferred embodiment of the invention moves delineated streams of octets across a virtual connection to and from the device by layering and tunneling, utilizing the underlying fieldbus network as a transport mechanism. These octet sequences are referred to as VStreams™. One or more devices on the fieldbus network may have one or more VStreams™ active simultaneously, in either direction. Preferably, a standard multi-byte parameter supported by the fieldbus is defined for use as a window, preferably as large as the underlying fieldbus will allow. Writes to this parameter are interpreted as sequential transfers of data in to the field device. Reads from this parameter are interpreted as sequential transfers of data out of the field device.