WO2008127688A1

WO2008127688A1 - Synchronizing timeslots in a wireless communication protocol

Info

Publication number: WO2008127688A1
Application number: PCT/US2008/004775
Authority: WO
Inventors: Wallace A. Pratt; Mark J. Nixon; Eric D. Rotvold; Robin S. Pramanik; Tomas P. Lennvall; Yuri Zats
Original assignee: Hart Communication Foundation
Priority date: 2007-04-13
Filing date: 2008-04-11
Publication date: 2008-10-23

Abstract

A method for synchronizing communications in wireless mesh network operating in a process control environment and including a plurality of network devices includes defining a communication timeslot of a predetermined duration, wherein each of the plurality of network devices transmits or receives data only within the communication timeslot generating a network schedule including at least one superframe having repeating superframe cycles each having a number of communication timeslots sequentially numbered relative to a beginning of each cycle, the number of communication timeslots defining a length of the at least one superframe, maintaining an absolute slot number indicative of a number of communication timeslots scheduled since a start time of the wireless network, synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with respect to a timing of an individual communication timeslot, and synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with the network schedule based on the absolute slot number.

Description

SYNCHRONIZING TIMESLOTS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION

PROTOCOL

Field of Technology

[0001] The present invention relates generally to wireless communications and, more particularly, to synchronizing communications in a wireless network.

Background

[0002] It is known to use standardized communication protocols in the process control industry to enable devices made by different manufacturers to communicate with one another in an easy to use and implement manner. One such well known communication standard used in the process control industry is the Highway Addressable Remote Transmitter (HART) Communication Foundation protocol, referred to generally as the HART protocol. Generally speaking, the HART protocol supports a combined digital and analog signal on a dedicated wire or set of wires, in which on-line process signals (such as control signals, sensor measurements, etc.) are provided as an analog current signal (e.g., ranging from 4 to 20 milliamps) and in which other signals, such as device data, requests for device data, configuration data, alarm and event data, etc., are provided as digital signals superimposed or multiplexed onto the same wire or set of wires as the analog signal. However, the HART protocol currently requires the use of dedicated, hardwired communication lines, resulting in significant wiring needs within a process plant.

[0003] There has been a move, in the past number of years, to incorporate wireless technology into various industries including, in some limited manner, the process control industry. However, there are significant hurdles in the process control industry that limit the full scale incorporation, acceptance and use of wireless technology. In particular, the process control industry requires a completely reliable process control network because loss of signals can result in the loss of control of a plant, leading to catastrophic consequences, including explosions, the release of deadly chemicals or gases, etc. For example, Tapperson et al., U.S. Patent Number 6,236,334 discloses the use of a wireless communications in the process control industry as a secondary or backup communication path or for use in sending non-critical or redundant communication signals. Moreover, there have been many advances in the use of wireless communication systems in general that may be applicable to the process control industry, but which have not yet been applied to the process control industry in a manner that allows or provides a reliable, and in some instances completely wireless, communication network within a process plant. U.S. Patent Application Publication Numbers 2005/0213612, 2006/0029060 and 2006/0029061 for example disclose various aspects of wireless communication technology related to a general wireless communication system.

[0004] One factor significantly inhibiting the development and application of wireless communications in the process control industry is the difficulty of retrofitting legacy devices for the use with wireless communication networks. In some cases, devices cannot be retrofitted at all and need to be replaced with newer, wireless-ready models. Moreover, many of the supporting installations are similarly rendered obsolete by a transition to wireless communications. In other words, wireless networks cannot easily extend wired networks. An additional challenge particularly pertinent to the process control industry is the high cost of the existing wired installations and the understandable reluctance of the operators to completely replace the wired infrastructure with a wireless infrastructure. Meanwhile, wireless networks typically require stationary antennas or access points to transmit and receive radio signals and may therefore require an expensive infrastructure which makes the transition to wireless communications less desirable. Thus, while some operators may recognize the advantages of a wireless approach to process measurement and control, many may be unwilling to dismantle the existing installations, decommission the wired devices which may be fully operational, and purchase wireless devices.

[0005] Another factor contributing to the slower than expected proliferation of wireless standards in the process control industry is the impact on a user, such as a technician or an operator of a process control system. During operation of a typical process control system, users may remotely access individual devices for the purposes of configuring, monitoring, and controlling various functions of the devices. For example, to enable access and exchange of information over the HART protocol, devices are assigned unique addresses according to a predefined addressing scheme. Users and the software applications developed for operators and technicians in the process control industry have come to rely on an efficient addressing scheme which cannot be supported by the available wireless standards. Thus, a transition to a wireless standard in a process control industry is widely expected to entail adopting a new addressing scheme, updating the corresponding software applications and providing additional training to the personnel.

[0006] Additionally, some of the existing wireless standards, such as the IEEE 802.1 l(x) WLAN, for example, do not satisfy all of the demands of the process control industry. For example, devices communicate both process and control data which may typically have different propagation delay constraints. In general, some of the critical data exchanged in the process control industry may require efficient, reliable and timely delivery which cannot always be guaranteed by the existing wireless protocols. Moreover, because some of the modules used in the process control industry are used to control very sensitive and potentially dangerous process activities, wireless standards suitable for this industry need to provide redundancy in communication paths not readily available in the known wireless networks. Finally, some process control devices may be sensitive to high power radio signals and may require radio transmissions to be limited or held at a well controlled power level. Meanwhile, the available wireless standards typically rely on antennas or access points which transmit relatively strong signals to cover large geographic areas.

[0007] Similar to wired communication protocols, wireless communication protocols are expected to provide efficient, reliable and secure methods of exchanging information. Of course, much of the methodology developed to address these concerns on wired networks does not apply to wireless communications because of the shared and open nature of the medium. Further, in addition to the typical objectives behind a wired communication protocol, wireless protocols face other requirements with respect to the issues of interference and co-existence of several networks that use the same part of the radio frequency spectrum. To complicate matters, some wireless networks operate in the part of the spectrum that is unlicensed, or open to the public. Therefore, protocolsr-servicing such networks must be capable of detecting and resolving issues related to frequency (channel) contention, radio resource sharing and negotiation, etc.

[0008] In the process control industry, developers of wireless communication protocols face additional challenges, such as achieving backward compatibility with wired devices, supporting previous wired versions of a protocol, providing transition services to devices retrofitted with wireless communicators, and providing routing techniques which can ensure both reliability and efficiency. Meanwhile, there remains a wide number of process control applications in which there are few, if any, in-place measurements. Currently these applications rely on observed measurements (e.g. water level is rising) or inspection (e.g. period maintenance of air conditioning unit, pump, fan, etc.) to discover abnormal situations, hi order to take action, operators frequently require face-to-face discussions. Many of these applications could be greatly simplified if measurement and control devices were utilized. However, current measurement devices usually require power, communications infrastructure, configuration, and support infrastructure which simply is not available.

[0009] hi yet another aspect, the process control industry requires that the communication protocol servicing a particular process control network be able to accommodate field devices with different data transmission requirements, priorities, and power capabilities, hi particular, some process control systems may include measurement devices that frequently (such as several times per second) report measurements to a centralized controller or to another field device. Meanwhile, another device in the same system may report measurements, alarms, or other data only once per hour. However, both devices may require that the respective measurement reports propagate to a destination host, such as a controller, a workstation, or a peer field device, with as little overhead in time and bandwidth as possible.

[0010] Still further, precise time synchronization is critical to wireless communication systems in general and to Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)-based protocols in particular. Because TDMA technologies generally involve transmitting and receiving data within controlled time segments, both the receivers and the transmitters must be aware of a precise time when each time segments begins and ends, as well as of transmission or reception opportunities in a TDMA communication scheme. These and similar challenges are particularly prevalent in the environments which involve devices transmitting only occasionally.

[0011] hi another aspect, time synchronization is essential to proper operation of a TDMA communication scheme. Regardless of which hardware time source (e.g., crystals, ceramic resonators etc.) a particular device uses, some skew between the communicating devices (e.g., due to temperature or voltage variations or ageing) is inevitable, hi a process control industry, where many devices are frequently exposed to heat or pressure, devices may often lose synchronization.

Summary [0012] A wireless mesh network for use in, for example, process control plants includes a plurality of network devices communicating according to a network schedule defined as a set of concurrent overlapping superframes. Each superframe includes several communication timeslots of a predetermined duration and each superframe repeats immediately as a new superframe cycle after the occurrence of all communication timeslots in the previous superframe cycle. The timeslots within each superframe cycle are sequentially numbered relative to the beginning of the cycle. The wireless mesh network additionally maintains an Absolute Slot Number (ASN) indicative of a number of timeslots scheduled since the time of formation of the wireless network.

[0013] In some embodiments, a dedicated service defines superframes and allocates timeslots within each of the superframes according to the needs of network devices and of external hosts communicating with the network devices. If desired, a network device may participate in multiple superframes to transmit data specific to the network device and to forward data between other network devices. Optionally, the dedicated service may dynamically create and destroy superframes in view of changes in network conditions such as data bursts, congestion, block transfers, and network devices entering or leaving the network. Moreover, a network device or the dedicated service may efficiently deactivate a superframe without destroying the superframe by issuing a particular command. Further, the network schedule may include multiple communication channels and, in some embodiments, each communication channel may correspond to a unique carrier radio frequency. Each network device may have an individual schedule that includes relative timeslot numbers and communication channel identifiers and the individual schedule may specify the individually scheduled timeslots that the network device uses to transmit process data, route data originated from another network device, receive device-specific data, or receive broadcast data. In some embodiments, the individual schedule for a network device may specify a timeslot associated with several distinct communication channels during different superframe cycles, so that the network device transmits or receives data over different communication channels within a timeslot having the same relative slot number of a particular superframe.

[0014] In another aspect, a device joining the wireless network may discover a current value of the ASN from the potential neighbors of the joining device. Upon extracting the ASN from a corresponding message, the joining device may determine the current timeslot (i.e., a "relative timeslot") in each of the scheduled superframes. As a result, the joining device may begin to participate in the communication scheme of the wireless schedule at one of the predefined timeslots, thereby reducing the probability of collisions and simplifying the resolution of resource contention.

[0015] hi yet another aspect, a device may suspend communications with the communication network without necessarily destroying one or more superframes reserved for publishing the update data of the device. The device may wish to re-join the wireless network at a later time and, in order to determine when re-joining device may resume publishing the corresponding process data, the re-joining device may check the ASN to determine each of the relative slot numbers relevant to the individual schedule of the rejoining device, hi some embodiments, a re-joining device may execute an ASN-based resynchronization procedure after a temporary suspension from the wireless network by another device or a software entity such as a network manager, for example.

[0016] In some embodiments, network devices may additionally transmit a portion of the ASN number, or an "ASN snippet," to provide diagnostics information, hi one such embodiment, each network device includes the ASN snippet in every data unit associated with the network layer of the wireless protocol (NPDU). In some embodiments, the ASN snippet includes several least significant bits of the precise ASN value, hi some embodiments, network devices may use the ASN snippet to calculate the age of a data packet propagating through the wireless network.

Detailed Description of the Drawings

[0017] Fig. 1 is a block diagram that illustrates a system utilizing a WirelessHART network to provide wireless communication between field devices and router devices, which are connected to a plant automation network via a gateway device.

[0018] Fig. 2 is a schematic representation of the layers of a WirelessHART protocol implemented in accordance with one of the embodiments discussed herein.

[0019] Fig. 3 is a block diagram that illustrates segments of a communication timeslot defined in accordance with one of the embodiments discussed herein.

[0020] Fig. 4 is a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary association of timeslots of a three-slot superframe with several communicating devices. [0021] Fig. 5 schematically illustrates association of a timeslot of an exemplary superframe with several communication channels.

[0022] Fig. 6 is a block diagram that schematically illustrates an exemplary superframe definition including several concurrent superframes of different length.

[0023] Fig. 7 is another block diagram that schematically illustrates several concurrent superframes of different length in relation to an absolute slot number counter.

[0024] Fig. 8 illustrates an example state machine which a network device may execute when synchronizing with the wireless network of Fig. 1.

Detailed Description

[0025] Fig. 1 illustrates an exemplary network 10 in which the synchronization techniques described herein may be used. In particular, the network 10 may include a plant automation network 12 connected to a wireless communication network 14. The plant automation network 12 may include one or more stationary workstations 16 and one or more portable workstations 18 connected over a communication backbone 20 which may be implemented using Ethernet, RS-485, Profibus DP, or using other suitable communication hardware and protocol. The workstations and other equipment forming the plant automation network 12 may provide various control and supervisory functions to plant personnel, including access to devices in the wireless network 14. The plant automation network 12 and the wireless network 14 may be connected via a gateway device 22. More specifically, the gateway device 22 may be connected to the backbone 20 in a wired manner and may communicate with the plant automation network 12 using any suitable (e.g., known) communication protocol. The gateway device 22, which may be implemented in any other desired manner (e.g., as a standalone device, a card insertable into an expansion slot of the host workstations 16 or 18, as a part of the input/output (IO) subsystem of a PLC-based or DCS-based system, etc.), may provide applications that are running on the network 12 with access to various devices of the wireless network 14. In addition to protocol and command conversion, the gateway device 22 may provide synchronized clocking used by time slots and superframes (sets of communication time slots spaced equally in time) of a scheduling scheme associated with a wireless protocol (referred to herein as a WirelessHART protocol) implemented in the network 14. [0026] In some configurations, the network 10 may include more than one gateway device 22 to improve the efficiency and reliability of the network 10. In particular, multiple gateway devices 22 may provide additional bandwidth for the communication between the wireless network 14 and the plant automation network 12, as well as the outside world. On the other hand, the gateway 22 device may request bandwidth from the appropriate network service according to the gateway communication needs within the wireless network 14. A network manager software module 27, which may reside in the gateway device 22, may further reassess the necessary bandwidth while the system is operational. For example, the gateway device 22 may receive a request from a host residing outside of the wireless network 14 to retrieve a large amount of data. The gateway device 22 may then request the network manager 27 to allocate additional bandwidth to accommodate this transaction. For example, the gateway device 22 may issue an appropriate service request. The gateway device 22 may then request the network manager 27 to release the bandwidth upon completion of the transaction.

[0027] In general, the network manager 27 may be responsible for adapting the wireless network 14 to changing conditions and for scheduling communication resources. As network devices join and leave the network, the network manager 27 may update its internal model of the wireless network 14 and use this information to generate communication schedules and communication routes. Additionally, the network manager 27 may consider the overall performance of the wireless network 14 as well as the diagnostic information to adapt the wireless network 14 to changes in topology and communication requirements. Once the network manager 27 has generated the overall communication schedule, all or respective parts of the overall communication schedule may be transferred through a series of commands from the network manager 27 to the network devices.

[0028] To further increase bandwidth and improve reliability, the gateway device 22 may be functionally divided into a virtual gateway 24 and one or more network access points 25A- B, which may be separate physical devices in wired communication with the gateway device 22. However, while Fig. 1 illustrates a wired connection 26 between the physically separate gateway device 22 and the access points 25 A-B, it will be understood that the elements 22-26 may also be provided as an integral device. Because the network access points 25A-B may be physically separated from the gateway device 22, the access points 25A-B may be strategically placed in several different locations with respect to the network 14. In addition to increasing the bandwidth, multiple access points 25A-B can increase the overall reliability of the network 14 by compensating for a potentially poor signal quality at one access point 25A using the other access point 25B. Having multiple access points 25 A-B also provides redundancy in case of a failure at one or more of the access points 25 A-B.

[0029] In addition to allocating bandwidth and otherwise bridging the networks 12 and 14, the gateway device 22 may perform one or more managerial functions in the wireless network 14. As illustrated in Fig. 1, a network manager software module 27 and a security manager software module 28 may be stored in and executed in the gateway device 22. Alternatively, the network manager 27 and/or the security manager 28 may run on one of the hosts 16 or 18 in the plant automation network 12. For example, the network manager 27 may run on the host 16 and the security manager 28 may run on the host 18. The network manager 27 maybe responsible for configuration of the network 14, scheduling communication between wireless devices, managing routing tables associated with the wireless devices, monitoring the overall health of the wireless network 14, reporting the health of the wireless network 14 to the workstations 16 and 18, as well as other administrative and supervisory functions. Although a single active network manager 27 may be sufficient in the wireless network 14, redundant network managers 27 may be similarly supported to safeguard the wireless network 14 against unexpected equipment failures. Meanwhile, the security manager 28 may be responsible for protecting the wireless network 14 from malicious or accidental intrusions by unauthorized devices. To this end, the security manager 28 may manage authentication codes, verify authorization information supplied by devices attempting to join the wireless network 14, update temporary security data such as expiring secret keys, and perform other security functions.

[0030] With continued reference to Fig. 1 , the wireless network 14 may include one or more field devices 30-36. In general, process control systems, like those used in chemical, petroleum or other process plants, include such field devices as valves, valve positioners, switches, sensors (e.g., temperature, pressure and flow rate sensors), pumps, fans, etc. Field devices perform physical control functions within the process such as opening or closing valves or take measurements of process parameters. In the wireless communication network 14, field devices 30-36 are producers and consumers of wireless communication packets. [0031] The devices 30-36 may communicate using a wireless communication protocol that provides the functionality of a similar wired network, with similar or improved operational performance. In particular, this protocol may enable the system to perform process data monitoring, critical data monitoring (with the more stringent performance requirements), calibration, device status and diagnostic monitoring, field device troubleshooting, commissioning, and supervisory process control. The applications performing these functions, however, typically require that the protocol supported by the wireless network 14 provide fast updates when necessary, move large amounts of data when required, and support network devices which join the wireless network 14, even if only temporarily for commissioning and maintenance work.

[0032] In one embodiment, the wireless protocol supporting network devices 30-36 of the wireless network 14 is an extension of the known wired HART protocol, a widely accepted industry standard, that maintains the simple workflow and practices of the wired environment. In this sense, the network devices 30-36 may be considered WirelessHART devices. The same tools used for wired HART devices may be easily adapted to wireless devices 30-36 with a simple addition of new device description files. In this manner, the wireless protocol may leverage the experience and knowledge gained using the wired HART protocol to minimize training and simplify maintenance and support. Generally speaking, it may be convenient to adapt a protocol for wireless use so that most applications running on a device do not "notice" the transition from a wired network to a wireless network. Clearly, such transparency greatly reduces the cost of upgrading networks and, more generally, reduces the cost associated with developing and supporting devices that may be used with such networks. Some of the additional benefits of a wireless extension of the well-known HART protocol include access to measurements that were difficult or expensive to obtain with wired devices and the ability to configure and operate instruments from system software that can be installed on laptops, handhelds, workstations, etc. Another benefit is the ability to send diagnostic alerts from wireless devices back through the communication infrastructure to a centrally located diagnostic center. For example, every heat exchanger in a process plant could be fitted with a WirelessHART device and the end user and supplier could be alerted when a heat exchanger detects a problem. Yet another benefit is the ability to monitor conditions that present serious health and safety problems. For example, a WirelessHART device could be placed in flood zones on roads and be used to alert authorities and drivers about water levels. Other benefits include access to a wide range of diagnostics alerts and the ability to store trended as well as calculated values at the WirelessHART devices so that, when communications to the device are established, the values can be transferred to a host. In this manner, the WirelessHART protocol can provide a platform that enables host applications to have wireless access to existing HART-enabled field devices and the WirelessHART protocol can support the deployment of battery operated, wireless only HART-enabled field devices. The WirelessHART protocol may be used to establish a wireless communication standard for process applications and may further extend the application of HART communications and the benefits that this protocol provides to the process control industry by enhancing the basic HART technology to support wireless process automation applications.

[0033] Referring again to Fig. 1 , the field devices 30-36 may be WirelessHART field devices, each provided as an integral unit and supporting all layers of the WirelessHART protocol stack. For example, in the network 14, the field device 30 may be a WirelessHART flow meter, the field devices 32 may be WirelessHART pressure sensors, the field device 34 may be a WirelessHART valve positioner, and the field device 36 may a WirelessHART pressure sensor. Importantly, the wireless devices 30-36 may support all of the HART features that users have come to expect from the wired HART protocol. As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, one of the core strengths of the HART protocol is its rigorous interoperability requirements. In some embodiments, all WirelessHART equipment includes core mandatory capabilities in order to allow equivalent device types (made by different manufacturers, for example) to be interchanged without compromising system operation. Furthermore, the WirelessHART protocol is backward compatible to HART core technology such as the device description language (DDL). In the preferred embodiment, all of the WirelessHART devices should support the DDL, which ensures that end users immediately have the tools to begin utilizing the WirelessHART protocol.

[0034] If desired, the network 14 may include non-wireless devices. For example, a field device 38 of Fig. 1 may be a legacy 4-20 mA device and a field device 40 may be a traditional wired HART device. To communicate within the network 14, the field devices 38 and 40 may be connected to the WirelessHART network 14 via a WirelessHART adaptor (WHA) 50. Additionally, the WHA 50 may support other communication protocols such as Foundation^® Fieldbus, PROFIBUS, DevicesNet, etc. In these embodiments, the WHA 50 supports protocol translation on a lower layer of the protocol stack. Additionally, it is contemplated that a single WHA 50 may also function as a multiplexer and may support multiple HART or non-HART devices.

[0035] Plant personnel may additionally use handheld devices for installation, control, monitoring, and maintenance of network devices. Generally speaking, handheld devices are portable equipment that can connect directly to the wireless network 14 or through the gateway devices 22 as a host on the plant automation network 12. As illustrated in Fig. 1, a WirelessHART-connected handheld device 55 may communicate directly with the wireless network 14. When operating with a formed wireless network 14, the handheld device 55 may join the network 14 as just another WirelessHART field device. When operating with a target network device that is not connected to a WirelessHART network, the handheld device 55 may operate as a combination of the gateway device 22 and the network manager 27 by forming its own wireless network with the target network device.

[0036] A plant automation network-connected handheld device (not shown) may be used to connect to the plant automation network 12 through known networking technology, such as Wi-Fi. This device communicates with the network devices 30-40 through the gateway device 22 in the same fashion as external plant automation servers (not shown) or the workstations 16 and 18 communicate with the devices 30-40.

[0037] Additionally, the wireless network 14 may include a router device 60 which is a network device that forwards packets from one network device to another network device. A network device that is acting as a router device uses internal routing tables to conduct routing, i.e., to decide to which network device a particular packet should be sent. Standalone routers such as the router 60 may not be required in those embodiments where all of the devices on the wireless network 14 support routing. However, it may be beneficial (e.g. to extend the network, or to save the power of a field device in the network) to add one or more dedicated routers 60 to the network 14.

[0038] All of the devices directly connected to the wireless network 14 may be referred to as network devices. In particular, the wireless field devices 30-36, the adapters 50, the routers 60, the gateway devices 22, the access points 25 A-B, and the wireless handheld device 55 are, for the purposes of routing and scheduling, network devices, each of which forms a node of the wireless network 14. In order to provide a very robust and an easily expandable wireless network, all of the devices in a network may support routing and each network device may be globally identified by a substantially unique address, such as a HART address, for example. The network manager 27 may contain a complete list of network devices and may assign each device a short, network unique 16-bit nickname. Additionally, each network device may store information related to update rates, connection sessions, and device resources. In short, each network device maintains up-to-date information related to routing and scheduling within the wireless network 14. The network manager 27 may communicate this information to network devices whenever new devices join the network or whenever the network manager 27 detects or originates a change in topology or scheduling of the wireless network 14.

[0039] Further, each network device may store and maintain a list of neighbor devices that the network device has identified during listening operations. Generally speaking, a neighbor of a network device is another network device of any type potentially capable of establishing a connection with the network device in accordance with the standards imposed by a corresponding network. In case of the WirelessHART network 14, the connection is a direct wireless connection. However, it will be appreciated that a neighboring device may also be a network device connected to the particular device in a wired manner. As will be discussed later, network devices promote their discovery by other network devices through advertisement, or special messages sent out during designated periods of time. Network devices operatively connected to the wireless network 14 have one or more neighbors which they may choose according to the strength of the advertising signal or to some other principle.

[0040] In the example illustrated in Fig. 1, each of a pair of network devices that are connected by a direct wireless connection 65 recognizes the other as a neighbor. Thus, network devices of the wireless network 14 may form a large number of inter-device connections 65. The possibility and desirability of establishing a direct wireless connection 65 between two network devices is determined by several factors, such as the physical distance between the nodes, obstacles between the nodes (devices), signal strength at each of the two nodes, etc. Further, two or more direct wireless connections 65 may be used to form communication paths between nodes that cannot form a direct wireless connection 65. For example, the direct wireless connection 65 between the WirelessHART hand-held device 55 and WirelessHART device 36 along with the direct wireless connection 65 between the WirelessHART device 36 the router 60 form a communication path between the devices 55 and 60.

[0041] Each wireless connection 65 is characterized by a large set of parameters related to the frequency of transmission, the method of access to a radio resource, etc. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that, in general, wireless communication protocols may operate on designated frequencies, such as the ones assigned by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, or in the unlicensed part of the radio spectrum (e.g., 2.4GHz). While the system and method discussed herein may be applied to a wireless network operating on any designated frequency or range of frequencies, the example embodiment discussed below relates to the wireless network 14 operating in the unlicensed, or shared part of the radio spectrum. In accordance with this embodiment, the wireless network 14 may be easily activated and adjusted to operate in a particular unlicensed frequency range as needed.

[0042] One of the core requirements for a wireless network protocol using an unlicensed frequency band is the minimally disruptive coexistence with other equipment utilizing the same band. Coexistence generally defines the ability of one system to perform a task in a shared environment in which other systems can similarly perform their tasks while conforming to the same set of rules or to a different (and possibly unknown) set of rules. One requirement of coexistence in a wireless environment is the ability of the protocol to maintain communication while interference is present in the environment. Another requirement is that the protocol should cause as little interference and disruption as possible with respect to other communication systems.

[0043] In other words, the problem of coexistence of a wireless system with the surrounding wireless environment has two general aspects. The first aspect of coexistence is the manner in which the system affects other systems. For example, an operator or developer of the particular system may ask what impact the transmitted signal of one transmitter has on other radio system operating in proximity to the particular system. More specifically, the operator may ask whether the transmitter disrupts communication of some other wireless device every time the transmitter turns on or whether the transmitter spends excessive time on the air effectively "hogging" the bandwidth. Ideally, each transmitter should be a "silent neighbor" that no other transmitter notices. While this ideal characteristic is rarely, if ever, attainable, a wireless system that creates a coexistence environment in which other wireless communication systems may operate reasonably well may be called a "good neighbor." The second aspect of coexistence of a wireless system is the ability of the system to operate reasonably well in the presence of other systems or wireless signal sources, hi particular, the robustness of a wireless system may depend on how well the wireless system prevents interference at the receivers, on whether the receivers easily overload due to proximate sources of RF energy, on how well the receivers tolerate an occasional bit loss, and similar factors, hi some industries, including the process control industry, there are a number of important potential applications in which the loss of data is frequently not allowable. A wireless system capable of providing reliable communications in a noisy or dynamic radio environment may be called a "tolerant neighbor."

[0044] Effective coexistence (i.e., being a good neighbor and a tolerant neighbor) relies in part on effectively employing three aspects of freedom: time, frequency and distance. Communication can be successful when it occurs 1) at a time when the interference source (or other communication system) is quiet; 2) at a different frequency than the interference signal; or 3) at a location sufficiently removed from the interference source. While a single one of these factors could be used to provide a communication scheme in the shared part of the radio spectrum, a combination of two or all three of these factors can provide a high degree of reliability, security and speed.

[0045] Still referring to Fig. 1, the network manager 27 or another application or service running on the network 14 or 12 may define a master network schedule 67 for the wireless communication network 14 in view of the factors discussed above. The master network schedule 67 may specify the allocation of resources such as time segments and radio frequencies to the network devices 25 A-B and 30-55. In particular, the master network schedule 67 may specify when each of the network devices 25 A-B and 30-55 transmits process data, routes data on behalf of other network devices, listens to management data propagated from the network manager 27, and transmits advertisement data for the benefit of devices wishing to join the wireless network 14. To allocate the radio resources in an efficient manner, the network manager 27 may define and update the master network schedule 67 in view of the topology of the wireless network 14. More specifically, the network manager 27 may allocate the available resources to each of the nodes of the wireless network 14 (i.e., wireless devices 30-36, 50, and 60) according to the direct wireless connections 65 identified at each node. In this sense, the network manager 27 may define and maintain the network schedule 67 in view of both the transmission requirements and of the routing possibilities at each node.

[0046] The master network schedule 67 may partition the available radio sources into individual communication channels, and further measure transmission and reception opportunities on each channel in such units as Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) communication timeslots, for example. In particular, the wireless network 14 may operate within a certain frequency band which, in most cases, may be safely associated with several distinct carrier frequencies, so that communications at one frequency may occur at the same time as communications at another frequency within the band. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that carrier frequencies in a typical application (e.g., public radio) are sufficiently spaced apart to prevent interference between the adjacent carrier frequencies. For example, in the 2.4 GHz band, EEEE assigns frequency 2.455 to channel number 21 and frequency 2.460 to channel number 22, thus allowing the spacing of 5 KHz between two adjacent segments of the 2.4 GHz band. The master network schedule 67 may thus associate each communication channel with a distinct carrier frequency, which may be the center frequency in a particular segment of the band.

[0047] Meanwhile, as typically used in the industries utilizing TDMA technology, the term "timeslot" refers to a segment of a specific duration into which a larger period of time is divided to provide a controlled method of sharing. For example, a second may be divided into 10 equal 100 millisecond timeslots. Although the master network schedule 67 preferably allocates resources as timeslots of a single fixed duration, it is also possible to vary the duration of the timeslots, provided that each relevant node of the wireless network 14 is properly notified of the change. To continue with the example definition often 100- millisecond timeslots, two devices may exchange data every second, with one device transmitting during the first 100 ms period of each second (i.e., the first timeslot), the other device transmitting during the fourth 100 ms period of each second (i.e., the fourth timeslot), and with the remaining timeslots being unoccupied. Thus, a node on the wireless network 14 may identify the scheduled transmission or reception opportunity by the frequency of transmission and the timeslot during which the corresponding device may transmit or receive data.

[0048] To properly synchronize the network devices 25A-B and 30-50 with the master network schedule 67, the network manager 27 may maintain a counter 68 to keep track of a number of timeslots scheduled since the formation of the wireless network 14, i.e., since a first network device initiated the process of forming the wireless network 14. As indicated above, the first network device may be the gateway device 22, for example. The number of timeslots elapsed since the beginning of the wireless network 14 is referred to herein as the Absolute Slot Number ("ASN"), in contrast to a relative slot number of a timeslot in a particular superframe. The network manager 27 may initialize the ASN counter 68 to zero at the time of formation of the wireless network 14 and increment consequently increment the ASN counter 68 by one with each occurrence of a new timeslot. As discussed in greater detail below, each of the network devices 25 A-B and 30-50 may similarly maintain a local copy of the ASN counter 68 and periodically synchronize the local copy with the master ASN counter 68 maintained by the network manager 27 or the gateway 22 (e.g., the network manager 27 and the gateway 22 may share this information through a private interface)..

[0049] As part of defining an efficient and reliable network schedule 67, the network manager 27 may logically organize timeslots into cyclically repeating sets, or superframes. As used herein, a superframe may be more precisely understood as a series of equal superframe cycles, each superframe cycle corresponding to a logical grouping of several adjacent time slots forming a contiguous segment of time. The number of time slots in a given superframe defines the length of the superframe and determines how often each time slot repeats. In other words, the length of a superframe, multiplied by the duration of a single timeslot, specifies the duration of a superframe cycle. Additionally, the timeslots within each frame cycle may be sequentially numbered for convenience. To take one specific example, the network manager 27 may fix the duration of a timeslot at 10 milliseconds and may define a superframe of length 100 to generate a 1 -second frame cycle (i.e., 10 milliseconds multiplied by 100). In a zero-based numbering scheme, this example superframe may include timeslots numbered 0, 1, ... 99.

[0050] As discussed in greater detail below, the network manager 27 reduces latency and otherwise optimizes data transmissions by including multiple concurrent superframes of different sizes in the network schedule 67. Moreover, some or all of the superframes of the network schedule 67 may span multiple channels, or carrier frequencies. Thus, the master network schedule 67 may specify the association between each timeslot of each superframe and one of the available channels.

[0051] Thus, the master network schedule 67 may correspond to an aggregation of individual device schedules. For example, a network device, such as the valve positioner 34, may have an individual device schedule 69A. The device schedule 69A may include only the information relevant to the corresponding network device 34. Similarly, the router device 60 may have an individual device schedule 69B. Accordingly, the network device 34 may transmit and receive data according to the device schedule 69A without knowing the schedules of other network devices such as the schedule 69B of the device 60. To this end, the network manager 27 may manage both the overall network schedule 67 and each of the individual device schedules 69 (e.g., 69A and 69B) and communicate the individual device schedules 69 to the corresponding devices when necessary. In other embodiments, the individual network devices 25A-B and 35-50 may at least partially define or negotiate the device schedules 69 and report these schedules to the network manager 27. According to this embodiment, the network manager 27 may assemble the network schedule 67 from the received device schedules 69 while checking for resource contention and resolving potential conflicts.

[0052] The communication protocol supporting the wireless network 14 generally described above is referred to herein as the WirelessHART protocol 70, and the operation of this protocol is discussed in more detail with respect to Fig. 2. As will be understood, each of the direct wireless connections 65 may transfer data according to the physical and logical requirements of the WirelessHART protocoh70. Meanwhile, the WirelessHART protocol 70 may efficiently support communications within timeslots and on the carrier frequencies associated with the superframes defined by the device-specific schedules 69.

[0053] Fig. 2 schematically illustrates the layers of one example embodiment of the WirelessHART protocol 70, approximately aligned with the layers of the well-known ISO/OSI 7-layer model for communications protocols. By way of comparison, Fig. 2 additionally illustrates the layers of the existing "wired" HART protocol 72. It will be appreciated that the WirelessHART protocol 70 need not necessarily have a wired counterpart. However, as will be discussed in detail below, the WirelessHART protocol 70 can significantly improve the convenience of its implementation by sharing one or more upper layers of the protocol stack with an existing protocol. As indicated above, the WirelessHART protocol 70 may provide the same or greater degree of reliability and security as the wired protocol 72 servicing a similar network. At the same time, by eliminating the need to install wires, the WirelessHART protocol 70 may offer several important advantages, such as the reduction of cost associated with installing network devices, for example. It will be also appreciated that although Fig. 2 presents the WirelessHART protocol 70 as a wireless counterpart of the HART protocol 72, this particular correspondence is provided herein by way of example only, hi other possible embodiments, one or more layers of the WirelessHART protocol 70 may correspond to other protocols or, as mentioned above, the WirelessHART protocol 70 may not share even the uppermost application layer with any of the existing protocols.

[0054] As illustrated in Fig. 2, the wireless expansion of HART technology may add at least one new physical layer (e.g., the IEEE 802.15.4 radio standard) and two data-link layers (e.g., wired and wireless mesh) to the known HART implementation. In general, the WirelessHART protocol 70 may be a secure, wireless mesh networking technology operating in the 2.4GHz ISM radio band (block 74). hi one embodiment, the WirelessHART protocol 70 may utilize IEEE 802.15.4b compatible direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) radios with channel hopping on a transaction by transaction basis. This WirelessHART communication may be arbitrated using TDMA to schedule link activity (block 76). As such, all communications are preferably performed within a designated time slot. One or more source and one or more destination devices may be scheduled to communicate in a given slot, and each slot may be dedicated to communication from a single source device, or the source devices may be scheduled to communicate using a CSMA/CA-like shared communication access mode. Source devices may send messages to one ore more specific target devices or may broadcast messages to all of the destination devices assigned to a slot.

[0055] Because the WirelessHART protocol described herein allows deployment of mesh topologies, a significant network layer 78 may be specified as well, hi particular, the network layer 78 may enable establishing direct wireless connections 65 between individual devices and routing data between a particular node of the wireless network 14 (e.g., the device 34) and the gateway 22 via one or more intermediate hops. In some embodiments, pairs of network devices 25A-B and 30-50 may establish communication paths including one or several hops while in other embodiments, all data may travel either upstream to the gateway device 22 or downstream from the gateway device 22 to a particular node.

[0056] To enhance reliability, the WirelessHART protocol 70 may combine TDMA with a method of associating multiple radio frequencies with a single communication resource, e.g., channel hopping. Channel hopping provides frequency diversity which minimizes interference and reduces multi-path fading effects. In particular, the data link 76 may create an association between a single superframe and multiple carrier frequencies which the data link layer 76 cycles through in a controlled and predefined manner. For example, the available frequency band of a particular instance of the WirelessHART network 14 may have carrier frequencies F₁, F₂, ... F_n. A relative frame R of a superframe S may be scheduled to occur at a frequency F₁ in the cycle C_n, at a frequency F₅ in the following cycle C_n+i, at a frequency F₂ in the cycle C_n+2, and so on. The network manager 27 may configure the relevant network devices with this information so that the network devices communicating in the superframe S may adjust the frequency of transmission or reception according to the current cycle of the superframe S.

[0057] The data link layer 76 of the WirelessHART protocol 70 may offer an additional feature of channel blacklisting, which restricts the use of certain channels in the radio band by the network devices. The network manager 27 may blacklist a radio channel in response to detecting excessive interference or other problems on the channel. Further, operators or network administrators may blacklist channels in order to protect a wireless service that uses a fixed portion of the radio band that would otherwise be shared with the WirelessHART network 14. In some embodiments, the WirelessHART protocol 70 controls blacklisting on a superframe basis so that each superframe has a separate blacklist of prohibited channels.

[0058] In one embodiment, the network manager 27 is responsible for allocating, assigning, and adjusting time slot resources associated with the data link layer 76. If a single instance of the network manager 27 supports multiple WirelessHART networks 14, the network manager 27 may create an overall schedule for each instance of the WirelessHART network 14. The schedule may be organized into superframes containing time slots numbered relative to the start of the superframe. [0059] The WirelessHART protocol 70 may further define links or link objects in order to logically unite scheduling and routing. In particular, a link may be associated with a specific network device, a specific superframe, a relative slot number, one or more link options (transmit, receive, shared), and a link type (normal, advertising, discovery). As illustrated in Fig. 2, the data link layer 76 may be frequency-agile. More specifically, a channel offset may be used to calculate the specific radio frequency used to perform communications. The network manager 27 may define a set of links in view of the communication requirements at each network device. Each network device may then be configured with the defined set of links. The defined set of links may determine when the network device needs to wake up, and whether the network device should transmit, receive, or both transmit/receive upon waking up.

[0060] With continued reference to Fig. 2, the transport layer 80 of the WirelessHART protocol 70 allows efficient, best-effort communication and reliable, end-to-end acknowledged communications. As one skilled in the art will recognize, best-effort communications allow devices to send data packets without an end-to-end acknowledgement and no guarantee of data ordering at the destination device. User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is one well-known example of this communication strategy. In the process control industry, this method may be useful for publishing process data. In particular, because devices propagate process data periodically, end-to-end acknowledgements and retries have limited utility, especially considering that new data is generated on a regular basis. In contrast, reliable communications allow devices to send acknowledgement packets. In addition to guaranteeing data delivery, the transport layer 80 may order packets sent between network devices. This approach may be preferable for request/response traffic or when transmitting event notifications. When the reliable mode of the transport layer 80 is used, the communication may become synchronous.

[0061] Reliable transactions may be modeled as a master issuing a request packet and one or more slaves replying with a response packet. For example, the master may generate a certain request and can broadcast the request to the entire network. In some embodiments, the network manager 27 may use reliable broadcast to tell each network device in the WirelessHART network 14 to activate a new superframe. Alternatively, a field device such as the sensor 30 may generate a packet and propagate the request to another field device such as to the portable HART communicator 55. As another example, an alarm or event generated by the 34 field device may be transmitted as a request directed to the gateway device 22. In response to successfully receiving this request, the gateway device 22 may generate a response packet and send the response packet to the device 34, acknowledging receipt of the alarm or event notification.

[0062] Referring again to Fig. 2, the session layer 82 may provide session-based communications between network devices. End-to-end communications may be managed on the network layer by sessions. A network device may have more than one session defined for a given peer network device. If desired, almost all network devices may have at least two sessions established with the network manager 27: one for pairwise communication and one for network broadcast communication from the network manager 27. Further, all network devices may have a gateway session key. The sessions may be distinguished by the network device addresses assigned to them. Each network device may keep track of security information (encryption keys, nonce counters) and transport information (reliable transport sequence numbers, retry counters, etc.) for each session in which the device participates.

[0063] Finally, both the WirelessHART protocol 70 and the wired HART protocol 72 may support a common HART application layer 84. The application layer of the WirelessHART protocol 70 may additionally include a sub-layer 86 supporting auto-segmented transfer of large data sets. By sharing the application layer 84, the protocols 70 and 72 allow for a common encapsulation of HART commands and data and eliminate the need for protocol translation in the uppermost layer of the protocol stack.

[0064] Figs. 3-6 provide a more detailed illustration of channel and timeslot resource allocation supported by the data link layer 76 and the network layer 78 of the WirelessHART protocol 70. As discussed above in reference to Fig. 1 , the network manager 27 may manage the definition of one or more superframes and may associate individual timeslots within each of the defined superframes with one of the available channels (e.g., carrier frequencies). By way of one specific example, Fig. 3 illustrates a possible communication scheme within an individual timeslot, while Fig. 4 illustrates an example data exchange between several devices using the timeslots of a certain superframe. Next, Fig. 5 illustrates a possible association between an example timeslot and several available channels, and Fig. 6 is a schematic representation of several concurrent superframes which include the timeslots illustrated in Figs. 3-5.

[0065] Referring specifically to Fig. 3, two or mode network devices may exchange data in a timeslot 100, which may be a dedicated timeslot shared by one transmitting device and one receiving device or a shared timeslot having more than one transmitter and/or one or more receivers. In either case, the timeslot 100 may have a transmit schedule 102 and a receive schedule 104. In other words, one or more transmitting devices may communicate within the timeslot 100 according to the transmit timeslot schedule 102 while one or more receiving devices may communicate within the timeslot 100 according to the receive timeslot schedule 104. Of course, the timeslot schedules 102 and 104 are substantially precisely synchronized and begin at the same relative time 106. Over the course of the timeslot 100, a transmitting network device sends a predetermined amount of data over a communication channel such as a carrier radio frequency. In some cases, the transmitting network device may also expect to receive a positive or negative acknowledgement within the same timeslot 100.

[0066] Thus, as illustrated in Fig. 3, the transmit timeslot schedule 102 may include a transmit segment 110 for transmitting outbound data, preceded by a pre-transmission segment 112, and may include a receive segment 122 for receiving an acknowledgement for the data transmitted during the segment 110. The transmit segment 110 may be separated from the receive segment 122 by a transition segment 116, during which the corresponding network device may adjust the hardware settings, for example. Meanwhile, the receive schedule 104 may include segments for performing functions complementary to those carried out in the segments 112-122, as discussed below.

[0067] In particular, the transmitting device may send out the entire packet or stream segment associated with a capacity of the timeslot 100 during the segment 110. As mentioned above, the network schedule 69 may include shared timeslots which do not exclusively belong to an individual device schedule 67 of one of the network devices 25 A-B and 30-55. For example, a shared timeslot may have a dedicated receiver such as the gateway device 22 but no single dedicated transmitter. When necessary, one of the network devices 25A-60 may transmit unscheduled information, such as a request for additional bandwidth, over the shared timeslot. In these cases, the potentially transmitting device may check whether the shared timeslot is available by performing Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) in a pre-transmission segment 112. In particular, the transmitting network device may listen to signals propagated over the communication channel associated with the timeslot 100 for the duration of the pre-transmission segment 112 to confirm that no other network device is attempting to use the timeslot 100.

[0068] On the receiving end of the timeslot 100, the receiving device may receive the entire packet associated with the timeslot 100 within a packet receive segment 114. As illustrated in Fig. 3, the packet receive segment 114 may begin at an earlier point in time than the transmit segment 110. Next, the transmit timeslot schedule 102 requires that the transmitting device transition the radio mode in a transition segment 116. Similarly, the receive timeslot schedule 104 includes a transition segment 118. However, the segment 116 may be shorter than the segment 118 because the transmitting device may start listening for acknowledgement data early to avoid missing a beginning of an acknowledgement.

[0069] Still further, the transmit schedule 102 may include an acknowledgement receive segment 122 during which the transmitting device receives an acknowledgement transmitted during an acknowledgement transmit segment 124 associated with the receive schedule 104. The transmitting device may delete the packet transmitted during the transmit segment 110 from an associated transmit queue upon receiving a positive acknowledgement. On the other hand, the transmitting device may attempt to re-transmit the packet in the next scheduled dedicated timeslot or in the next available shared timeslot if no acknowledgement arrives or if the acknowledgement is negative.

[0070] Several timeslots 100 discussed above may be organized into a superframe 140, as schematically illustrated in Fig. 4. hi particular, the superframe 140 may include a (typically) infinite series of superframe cycles 150-154, each cycle including a set if timeslots, illustrated in Fig. 4 as a timeslot 142 with a relative timeslot number 0 (TSO), a timeslot 144 with a relative timeslot number 1 (TSl), and a timeslot 146 with a relative timeslot number 2 (TS2). Accordingly, the size of the superframe 140 of Fig. 4 is three timeslots. In other words, each of the timeslots 142-146 of the superframe 140 repeats in time at an interval of two intermediate timeslots. Thus, for a 10 millisecond timeslot, the interval between the end of a timeslot with a particular relative slot number and the beginning of a next timeslot with the same relative slot number is 20 milliseconds. Conceptually, the timeslots 142-146 may be further grouped into superframe cycles 150-154. As illustrated in Fig. 4, each superframe cycle corresponds to a new instance of a sequence of timeslots 142-146.

[0071] The master network schedule 67 may associate transmission and reception opportunities of some of the network devices participating in the wireless network 14 with particular timeslots of the superframe 140. Referring again to Fig. 4, a network fragment 160 schematically illustrates a partial communication scheme implemented between the network devices 34, 60, and 36 of Fig. 1. To simplify the illustration of the superframe 140, the network devices 34, 60, and 36 are additionally designed in Fig. 4 as nodes A, B, and C, respectively. Thus, according to Fig. 4, the node A transmits data to the node B which, in turn, transmits data to the node C. As discussed above, each of the nodes A-C includes a device schedule 69 A-C, which specifies the timeslots and channels (e.g., radio carrier frequencies) for transmitting and receiving data at the corresponding device. The master network schedule 67 may include part of all of the data information stored in the individual device schedules 69 A-C. More specifically, the network manager 27 may maintain the master network schedule 67 as an aggregate of the schedules associated with each of the network devices 25 A-B and 30-50, including the device schedules 69 A-C.

[0072] In this example, the duration of the timeslot 100 (Fig. 3) may be 10 milliseconds and the network device A may report data to the device C every 30 milliseconds. Accordingly, the network manager 27 may set the length of the superframe 140 at three timeslots specifically in view of the update rate of the network device A. Further, the network manager 27 may assign the timeslot 142 with a relative number 0 (TSO) to the network devices A and B, with the device A as the transmitter and the device B as the receiver. The network manager 27 may further allocate the next available timeslot 144, having the relative slot number 1 (TSl), to be associated with the transmission from the device B to the device C. Meanwhile, the timeslot 146 remains unassigned. In this manner, the superframe 140 provides a scheme according to which the network manager 27 may allocate resources in the network fragment 160 for the transmission of data from the device A to the device C in view of the available wireless connections between the devices A, B, and C. [0073J In the example illustrated in Fig. 4, the network device at node A may store information related to the timeslot 142 as part of its device schedule 69 A. Similarly, the network device at node B may store information related to the timeslots 142 (receive) and 144 (transmit) as part of its device schedule 69B. Finally, the network device C may store information related to the timeslot 144 in the device schedule 69C. In at least some of the embodiments, the network manager 27 stores information about the entire superframe 140, including an indication that the timeslot 146 is available.

[0074] Importantly, the superframe 140 need not be restricted to a single radio frequency or other single communication channel. In other words, the individual timeslots 142-146 defining the superframe 140 may be associated with different radio frequencies on a permanent or floating basis. Moreover, the frequencies used by the various devices need not always be adjacent in the electromagnetic spectrum. In one embodiment, for example, the timeslot 142 of each of the superframe cycles 150-154 may be associated with a carrier frequency Fi and the timeslot 144 of each of the superframe cycles 150-154 may be associated with a carrier frequency F₂, with the frequencies F₁ and F₂ being adjacent or non- adjacent in the electromagnetic spectrum.

[0075] In another embodiment, at least some of the timeslots 142-146 may move about the allocated frequency band in a predefined manner. Fig. 5 illustrates an example association of the timeslot 144 of Fig. 4 with channels 172-179 (corresponding to frequency sub-bands Fi- F₅) in the available frequency band 170. In particular, each of the channels 172-179 may correspond to one of the center frequencies Fi, F₂, ... F₅ which preferably differ from their respective neighbors by the same offset. The channels 172-179 preferably form a continuous section of the spectrum covering the entire available frequency band 170, although the channels 172-179 need be contiguous or form a continuous band in all embodiments. The superframe 140 may use at least a portion of the frequency band 170, so that one or more of the timeslots 142-146 are scheduled on different carrier frequencies in at least two consecutive cycles.

[0076] As illustrated in Fig. 5, the timeslot 144 may use the channel 176 (frequency F₃) during the frame cycle 150, may use the channel 174 (frequency F₄) during the frame cycle 152, and may use the channel 178 (frequency F₂) during the frame cycle 154. The timeslot 144 may then "return" to the channel 176 in the next superframe cycle 150A, which may similar to the cycle 150. Each of the specific associations of the timeslot 144 with one of the channels 172-179 is illustrated as a timeslot/channel tuple 144A-C. For example, the tuple 144A specifies the timeslot 2 scheduled, in the cycle 150, on the channel 176 associated with the center frequency F₃. Similarly, the tuple 144B specifies the timeslot 2 scheduled, in the cycle 152, on the channel 174 associated with the center frequency F₄. Meanwhile, the channel 172 associated with the center frequency F₅ may not be assigned to the timeslot 2 during any of the cycles 150-152. However, a different timeslot of the superframe 140 such as the timeslot 146, for example, may be associated with the channel 172 during one or more of the cycles 150-152.

[0077] In this example, the frequency assignment associated with the superframe cycle 150 may repeat immediately following the cycle 154 (illustrated as a cycle 150A in the Fig. 5), and the timeslot 144 may again correspond to the tuple 144A after two cycles of the superframe 140. Thus, the timeslot 144 may regularly cycle through the channels 176, 174, and 178. It will be appreciated that the timeslot 144 may similarly cycle through a greater or smaller number of channels irrespective of the length of the superframe 140, provided, of course, that enough channels are available in the frequency band 170. The association of a single timeslot with multiple channels during different superframe cycles, discussed above with respect to Fig. 5 and referred to herein as "channel hopping," significantly increases the reliability of the wireless network 14. In particular, channel hopping reduces the probability that a pair of devices, scheduled to communicate in a particular timeslot of a certain superframe, fail to transmit and receive data when a certain channel is jammed or otherwise unavailable. Thus, for example, the failure of the channel 174 prevents the devices using the timeslot 144 from communicating in the frame cycle 152 but not during the frame cycles 150 or 154.

[0078] Referring again to Fig. 4, the device schedules 69B and 69C may include the information regarding each of the tuples 144A-C discussed above in reference to Fig. 5. In particular, each of the device schedules 69B and 69C may store an assignment of the timeslot 144 to one of the channels 172-179 within each of the cycles 150-152. The master network schedule 67 (Fig. 1) may similarly include this information. Meanwhile, the device schedule 69 A need not necessarily include the information related to the timeslot 144 because the corresponding node A (the device 34) does not communicate during the timeslot 144 of the superframe 140. In operation, the devices 60 and 36 corresponding to the nodes B and C may prepare for data transmission and reception, respectively, at the beginning of each timeslot 144. To determine whether the timeslot 144 currently corresponds to the tuple 144A, 144B, or 144C, the devices 60 and 36 may apply a locally stored copy of the ASN counter 68 to determine whether the timeslot 144 is currently in the frame cycle 150, 152, or 154.

[0079] In the process of defining the network schedule 69, the network manager 27 may define multiple concurrent superframes in view of the update rates of the network devices 25A-B and 35-50. As illustrated in Fig. 6, the network schedule 69 may include the superframe 140 of length three as well superframes 190 and 192. The superframe 190 may be a five-slot superframe and the superframe 192 may be a four-slot superframe, although the different superframes may have a different number of slots and various different superframes may have the same number of slots. As illustrated in Fig. 6, the superframes need not necessarily align with respect to the relative slot numbers. In particular, at a particular time 194, the superframe 190 may schedule the timeslot with the relative number two (TS2) while the superframes 140 and 192 may schedule the timeslots with the relative number one (TSl). Preferably, the superframes 140, 190, and 192 are time-synchronized so that each transition to a new timeslot within each of these superframes occurs at the same time.

[0080] Each of the superframes 140, 190 and 192 may be primarily associated with, or "belong to" an individual one of or a subset of the network devices 25 A-B and 30-50. For example, the superframe 140 illustrated in Fig. 4 may belong to the node A (i.e., the network device 34), and the length of the superframe 140 may be advantageously selected so that the node A sends out measurement data to the node B during the timeslot 142 (TSO) once during each of the cycles 150-154. In case the wireless network 14 defines 10 millisecond timeslot, the node A sends data to the node B once every 30 milliseconds. If, however, the node A is reconfigured to report measurements once every 50 milliseconds, the network manager 27, alone or in. cooperation with the node A, may reconfigure the frame 140 to have a length of five timeslots instead. In other words, the length of each superframe may reflect a particular transmission requirement of a particular network device 25 A-B or 30-50. [0081] On the other hand, more than one network device 25A-B or 30-50 may use a superframe for transmitting or receiving data. Referring again to Fig. 4, the node B (the network device 60) may regularly transmit data to the node C (the network device 36) in the timeslot 144 of the superframe 140, although the superframe 140 may be primarily associated with the node A. Thus, different timeslots of a particular superframe may be used by different network devices to originate, route, or receive data. In a sense, the timeslots of each superframe may be understood as a resource allocated to different devices, with a particular priority assigned to the device that "owns" the superframe. Further, it will be appreciated that each network device may participate in multiple superframes. For example, the network device 34 in Fig. 4 may route data on behalf of other network devices (e.g., the network device 32 illustrated in Fig. 1), in addition to propagating its own data via the router device 60. Preferably, a device participating in multiple superframes does not schedule simultaneous communications in different superframes. While only three superframes are illustrated in Fig. 6, the wireless network 14 of Fig. 1 may include any number of superframes, with each of the different superframes having any desired or useful length based on the types and frequencies of communication being performed in or between particular devices and set of devices.

[0082] As indicated above, the ASN counter 68 (see Fig. 1) may reflect the total number of timeslots consecutively scheduled since the activation of the wireless network 14. In other words, only those timeslots which occur following another timeslot affect the ASN count, and the number of concurrently scheduled superframes has no impact on the ASN value. To further outline the operation of the ASN counter 68, Fig. 7 illustrates a schedule 250 including several concurrent superframes 252-256 created at or after a network start time 260. The superframe 252 may be a four-timeslot superframe in which the relative slot numbers iterate from zero to three. Similarly, the superframe 254 may similarly start at the network start time 260 but include eight timeslots numbered zero through seven. On the other hand, the superframe 256 may be created at a later time when a new network device joins the wireless network 14, for example, or when the network manager 27 allocates temporary resources for a special purpose such as to accommodate a block mode transfer. The values which the network manager 27 may assign to the ASN counter 68 during the operation of the network schedule 250 are generally indicated as a sequence 270. It will be noted that the value of the ASN counter 68 increases with every new timeslot irrespective of a superframe with which the timeslot is associated.

[0083] Referring back to Fig. 1, each of the network devices 25A-B and 30-50 may maintain a local copy of the ASN counter 68. During operation of the wireless network 14, the gateway device 22 may propagate the current value of the ASN counter 68 to each network device 25 A-B or 30-50 for network synchronization. Every network device 25A-B or 30-50 may then compare a local copy of the ASN counter to the value reported in a data packet sent by the gateway device 22 and, if necessary, update the local copy to match the value of the ASN counter adjusted according to a propagation delay of the message. For example, the network schedule 67 may specify that the network node 32 receives a certain type of a data packet, originated by the gateway device 22 and associated with a particular superframe, in a third timeslot following the timeslot in which the gateway device 22 transmits the packet to a neighbor device. The network node 32 may accordingly check whether the current ASN value stored by the network node 32 is indeed the value of ASN included in the data packet plus three (i.e., the number of timeslots scheduled since the gateway device 22 sent out the data packet).

[0084] It will be further noted that by propagating ASN information along multiple paths to each network device 25A-B and 30-50 (Fig. 1), the wireless network 14 ensures that as some of the direct wireless connections 65 encounter obstacles or fail for other reasons, the network device 25 A-B and 30-50 typically have at least one more access to synchronization information, thus increasing the stability of the wireless network 14 and improving its overall resilience.

[0085] Additionally or alternatively, the network devices 25A-B and 30-50 also use the ASN value included in a data packet for ascertaining an age of the data packet. For example, a destination network node may receive a data packet, subtract the ASN inserted into the data packet at the originating network node from the local copy of the ASN value, and calculate the age of the data packet by multiplying the difference in the number of timeslots by the duration of an individual timeslot. It will be noted that by relying on the ASN value included in data packet, the wireless network 14 may enforce time-to-live (TTL) requirements, perform network diagnostics, collect delivery delay statistics, etc. [0086] In some embodiments, every message between a pair of neighbor devices may include the ASN value in a Network Protocol Data Unit (NPDU). If the wireless network 14 uses the WirelessHART protocol 70 schematically illustrated in Fig. 2, each frame associated with the layer 78 may include the ASN value to ensure that the neighbors sharing a direct wireless connection 65 are properly synchronized. In one particular embodiment, each network device 25 A-B or 30-50 may include only a portion of the ASN value in an NPDU frame to reduce the amount of data transmitted at the level of the network layer protocol. More specifically, the wireless network 14 may maintain a 32-bit ASN value but the corresponding ASN snippet may include only the lower 16 bits of the ASN value. It will be appreciated that because a typical message is delivered within a seconds or even milliseconds, several lower bits of the ASN value may be sufficient to measure the TTL value. Of course, other embodiments may use an even smaller snippet.

[0087] Further, the network devices 25 A-B and 30-50 may use the ASN value to determine a current timeslot in a particular superframe. In some embodiments, these devices may apply the following function to calculate a relative slot number within a superframe: relative slot number = ASN % (length of the superframe), where the symbol "%" represents the modulo division function. A network device 25A-B or 30-50 may use this formula to construct an ordered list of the timeslots that are about to occur in the relevant superframes. It will be noted that in some embodiments, each new superframe of a certain length may start at such a time as to fit an integer number of superframes of this length between this time and the start time of the network. Referring again to Fig. 7, for example, the superframe 256 may have eight timeslots and may accordingly start a timeslot 0, 8, 16, ..., 8n, where n is an integer. In other embodiments, new superframes may not start at an ASN value equal to a multiple of the superframe length, and the joining device may add an additional offset to a result of applying the formula above.

[0088] In another embodiment, the devices attempting to join the wireless network 14 may use the ASN value to properly synchronize with the activate network schedule 67. In particular, each active network device 25 A-B and 30-50 may periodically sent out advertisement packets which the potential new neighbors of these devices may process to determine whether one or more new direct wireless connections 65 may be formed between the joining device and one more of the advertising devices. In addition to evaluating the strength and, optionally, the quality of a signal associated with each advertising (potential) neighbor, the joining device may consider a number of other factors when processing advertisement packets. For example, each advertisement packet may include a network identity field which the joining device may compare to the network identity with which the joining device has been previously provisioned. This process may ensure that the joining device joins the correct network if several similar wireless networks 14 operate within a short distance from each other or if there is some overlap between the geographical areas covered by these networks.

[0089] Referring to Fig. 8, a state diagram 300 illustrates some of the representative states in operation of a device joining the wireless network 14. In a state 302, the joining device may search for the potential neighbors by listening to advertisement packets. In at least some of the embodiments, the joining device may not yet know the network schedule 67 or even the relevant parts of the network schedule 67 but may be aware of at least some of the channels on which the wireless network 14 operates (e.g., a set of carrier radio frequencies). In other embodiments, the joining device may not be provisioned with any specific channel information and may only store the network identity, as discussed above. In these cases, the joining device may initially consider the entire unlicensed part of the radio spectrum as including potential communication channels of the wireless network 14. When searching for advertisement packets, the joining device may operate its transceiver in the receive mode and scan each of the potential channels for advertisement packets according to any suitable algorithm. For example, the joining device may listen to each potential channel for a several seconds before transitioning to the adjacent channel. Alternatively, the joining device may transition to the adjacent channel after each timeslot.

[0090] The state machine 300 may remain in the state 302 until the joining device receives an advertisement packet. Next, the joining device may process the received advertisement packet in a state 304. If, for example, the strength and/or quality of the carrier signal associated with the reception of this advertisement packet is below a predefined threshold, the joining device may return to the state 302 and wait for advertisement packets from other potential neighbors. Alternatively, the joining device may not implement an absolute threshold and may only evaluate the relative strength of each potential direct wireless connection 65. On the other hand, the joining device may transition to a synchronization state 306 if the signal is acceptable.

[0091] In the state 306, the joining device may extract the ASN value from the advertisement packet and update the local copy of the ASN count. In some embodiments, the joining device may transition back to the state 304 to collect additional advertisement packets and to collect statistics related to ASN values reported from various potential neighbors. In one such embodiment, the joining device may receive data packets of several types, some of which may include ASN timestamps, i.e., fields storing ASN values recorded at the time a source network device originated the corresponding data packet. In addition to processing the ASN values reported in the received data packets, the joining device may use the data packets to adjust the timing of a timeslot (e.g., start time, end time, etc.) As discussed above, the joining device may then use the ASN value to determine relative slot numbers in one or more superframes of the network schedule 67. Thus, when the joining device receives information regarding the available superframes in which the joining device may transmit and receive data as part of a join and/or authentication sequence, the joining device may quickly determine the relevant relative slot numbers by applying the modulo formula described above.

[0092] Upon completing synchronization, the joining device may begin to negotiate admission to the wireless network 14 in a state 308. It will be noted that the joining device may further transition through several additional states to complete authentication, negotiate bandwidth allocation, receive routing information from the network manager 27, obtain the scheduling of the management superframe, etc.

[0093] In another aspect, some of the network devices 30-50 may rely on the ASN value for quick re-synchronization after a period of dormancy, hi general, while a network device may disconnect from the network and connect again through the complete process of receiving advertisement information from a potential neighbor and accepting the invitation, it may be desirable in some cases to avoid disconnecting a network device from the wireless network but 14 rather to maintain the network device in a dormant state. For example, the device 30 may collect measurements very rarely and may therefore have a very low update rate. Moreover, this network device may not be an intermediate hop for any of the network devices (i.e., this device may not be designated as the next node on any of the graphs of any of the neighbors of the device) and thus may not be an active participant in data exchange. In this case, the network device 30 may be configured either by the network manager 27 or manually by an administrator to request a long superframe for publish the process data.

[0094] During the long intervals during which the network device 30 is not communicating, the network device 30 may go into a sleep mode to conserve battery life. Immediately prior to this next scheduled communication time, the network device 30 may wake up, listen to network traffic to re-synchronize with the network and obtain the current absolute slot number. Thereafter, the network device 14 may wait for the proper relative slot in the current superframe, perform the scheduled communication at the appropriate time (i.e., during the scheduled relative slot number(s), and return to the dormant state. Importantly, the network device 30 may thus avoid the time- and resource- intensive process of leaving and joining the wireless network 14. Instead, the network device 14 may efficiently reconnect by waking up according to the period corresponding to the size of the requested superframe, and re-synchronize with the network in time for the next scheduled communication at the network device 14. In addition to saving power, the network device 15 may thereby reduce the rate of transmission and minimize the amount of non-essential network traffic.

[0095] Additionally, the network device 25 A-B and 30-50 may use ASN information to resolve collisions when trying to access shared resources. In particular, multiple devices may sometimes share a certain link resource (i.e., a timeslot of a particular superframe occurring on particular direct wireless connection 65) and may accordingly require a method of resolving conflicts when two or more of these devices attempt to transmit over the shared link at the same time. In general, the wireless network 14 may manage shared links in a manner similar to the well-known slotted aloha algorithm, and the network devices 25A-B and 30-50 may use a collision-avoidance scheme with an exponential backoff. However, the backoff may be implemented as a delay measured in an integer number of timeslots rather than in traditional units of time. Thus, a network device 25 A-B or 30-50 may back off by one timeslot, two timeslots, four timeslots, etc. By synchronizing backoff intervals with timeslots, the network device 25 A-B or 30-50 may optimize the retry mechanism and ensure that retry attempts happen only when there is an actual possibility of transmission. Meanwhile, shared links may be desirable when bandwidth requirements of some of the network devices 25 A-B or 30-50 are low, or when traffic is irregular. In many situations, using shared links may decrease latency because a certain network device 25 A-B or 30-50 does not need to wait for a dedicated links and may instead attempt to reserve the next available shared link.

[0096] In another aspect, the wireless network 14 may provide synchronization correction to the network devices 30-50 so that each network device may properly identify the start of each timeslot. In particular, a network device 30-50 may note the arrival of a data link protocol data unit (DLPDU) and, based on the information included in the DLPDU, calculate the difference, Δt, between the time of arrival and the "ideal" time at which the network device 30-50 expected to see the arrival of the DLPDU. More precisely, the network device 30-50 may associated the time of arrival with a reception of the complete start delimiter which frames the DLPDU. The start delimiter may be, for example, a predefined sequence of bits. In some embodiments, the network device 30-50 may report the calculated Δt value in every ACK or NACK sent in reply to a DLPDU received from a peer device. Of course, the value of Δt may be positive or negative. In this manner, every communication transaction in the wireless network 14 may measure the alignment of network time between the network devices 30-50, thereby significantly improving the ability of these network devices 30-50 to properly keep network time. In some embodiments, time synchronization may be based either on the arrival time of a DLPDU or on the Δt in the positive or negative data link layer acknowledgements (ACK/NACK), depending on which device initiates the transaction.

[0097] In an embodiment, the network manager 27 may designate, for each network device 30-50, certain neighbors as time synchronization sources. If, for example, the network devices 50, 30, and 34 are neighbors of the network device 32, the network manager 27 may designate the network device 30 to be one of the synchronization sources of the network device 32. In operation, when the network device 32 receives a DLPDU from the network device 30, the network device 32 may adjust the local network time. More specifically, the device designated as the time synchronization source may calculate the Δt value and include the calculated Δt value in a data packet to the device dependent on the time synchronization source device (e.g., in an acknowledgement DLPDU). The time-dependent device may then adjust the local time according to the Δt reported by the time synchronization source. The Δt value may be measured in microseconds, although other scales (e.g., nanoseconds, seconds) are also contemplated. It will be noted, moreover, that the network device 30 may not necessarily adjust the local network time in view of a DLPDU from the network device 30. In other words, the relationship between the network devices 30 and 32 with respect to time adjustment need not be symmetrical.

[0098] In general, device designers should understand time drift characteristics of their products. Thus, should the time source of a network device begin to drift, the network device may transmit one or more keep-alive DLPDUs, as needed, to the time synchronization neighbors to ensure that time synchronization is properly maintained. In another aspect, keep-alive DLPDUs also may be used for neighbor discovery and to confirm the viability of quiescent links.

[0099] With respect to selecting time sources, several approaches are contemplated. For example, the network manager 27 may define a path for time propagation from the gateway 22 outward to the end network device of the wireless network 14. Conversely, the network manager 27 may direct time synchronization in the opposite direction. In either case, the network manager 27 may direct time propagation along a synchronization chain so as to avoid forming closed loops. To take one specific example, the network manager 27 may define one time source propagation path as a originating at the gateway device 22, propagate through the network access point 25A, further propagate to the network device 32, the network device 60, and finally to the network device 34. The network access point 25 A may thus serve as a direct synchronization source of the network device 32 and as an indirect synchronization source of the network devices 60 and 34. In this example, the network device 60 may have several neighbors (e.g., network device 36, etc) but may use only the network device 32 for time synchronization. On the other hand, the network device 32 may not "trust" the timing of the network device 60 and may instead defer to the network access point 25 A.

[00100] From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the network devices 30-50 may maintain network time synchronization by sending DLPDUs and acknowledgements and by doing so, the network device 30-50 may also track the absolute number across the entire wireless network 14. All communications are scheduled to occur within a superframe during specific time slots in superframes. All devices must support multiple superframes and a specific superframe has one or more links. The links specify the slot and associated- information required to pass on or accept a packet. [00101] Although the forgoing text sets forth a detailed description of numerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the scope of the patent is defined by the words of the claims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment because describing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternative embodiments could be implemented, using either current technology or technology developed after the filing date of this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED:

1. A method for synchronizing communications in wireless mesh network operating in a process control environment and including a plurality of network devices, comprising: defining a communication timeslot of a predetermined duration, wherein each of the plurality of network devices transmits or receives data only within the communication timeslot; generating a network schedule including at least one superframe having repeating superframe cycles each having a number of communication timeslots sequentially numbered relative to a beginning of each cycle, the number of communication timeslots defining a length of the at least one superframe; maintaining an absolute slot number indicative of a number of communication timeslots scheduled since a start time of the wireless network; synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with respect to a timing of an individual communication timeslot; and synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with the network schedule based on the absolute slot number.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with the network schedule includes transmitting the absolute slot number in each network layer protocol data unit.

3. The method of claim 1, synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with respect to a timing of an individual communication timeslot includes: synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with respect to a communication timeslot timing to calculate a start time of a next scheduled communication timeslot, including: calculating, at each of the plurality of network devices, an expected time of arrival of a data packet; receiving the data packet at an actual time of arrival; calculating the difference between the expected time of arrival and the actual time of arrival; and calculating a corrected start time of a next scheduled communication timeslot based on the calculated difference.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein adjusting a synchronization of the network device includes sending the calculated difference between the expected time of arrival and the actual time of arrival in an acknowledgement packet to a neighbor network device, wherein the acknowledgement packet is associated with a data link protocol layer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with the network schedule includes transmitting a portion of the absolute slot number in each network layer protocol data unit, wherein the portion of the absolute slot number includes several least significant bits of the absolute slot number.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a network schedule further includes creating a plurality of concurrent superframes, each superframe having a different length; wherein each of the plurality of network devices communicates in at least one of plurality of concurrent superframes; and wherein synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with the network scheduleincludes obtaining a relative slot number in at least one of the plurality of superframes associated with the network device.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with the network schedule includes applying a formula relative slot number = ASN % superframe length; wherein relative slot number is the relative slot number in the at least one of the plurality of superframes associated with the network device,

ASN is the absolute slot number,

% is a modulo division operation, and superframe length is the length of the at least one of the plurality of superframes associated with the network device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising synchronizing a joining device attempting to join the wireless mesh network based on the ASN value, including: transmitting an advertisement message from at least one of the plurality of network devices; including the absolute slot number in the advertisement message; receiving the advertisement message at the joining device; and calculating a relative slot number within the at least one superframe of the network schedule based on the absolute slot number at the joining device.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein maintaining the absolute slot number includes independently maintaining a copy of the absolute slot number at each of the plurality of network devices.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein maintaining the absolute slot number further includes maintaining a global absolute slot number at a network manager responsible for generating the network schedule.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wireless mesh network includes a plurality of multi-hop communication paths connecting pairs of the plurality of network devices; and wherein synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with the network schedule includes transmitting the absolute slot number along at least two distinct paths, wherein the two distinct paths differ in at least one hop.

12. A method for synchronizing communications in wireless mesh network operating in a process control environment and including a plurality of network devices, comprising: defining a communication timeslot of a predetermined duration for transmitting or receiving data at at least one of the plurality of network devices; continuously scheduling non-overlapping adjacent communication timeslots during operation of the wireless mesh network; maintaining an absolute slot number counter indicative of a number of communication timeslots of a predetermined duration scheduled since a formation of the wireless communication network; synchronizing communications between the plurality of network devices based on the absolute slot number.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein maintaining an absolute slot number counter includes: setting an absolute slot number to zero at a formation of the wireless mesh network; and incrementing the absolute slot number by one with each occurrence of a new communication timeslot;

14. The method of claim 10, wherein maintaining the absolute slot number counter includes maintaining a global absolute slot number at a network manager responsible for scheduling communications in the wireless mesh network; and wherein synchronizing communications between the plurality of network devices based on the absolute slot number includes: propagating the absolute slot number to each of the plurality of network devices; and updating a copy of the absolute number at each of the plurality of network devices to match the global absolute slot number.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the network manager resides in a gateway device connecting the wireless mesh network to a plant automation network; and wherein propagating the absolute slot number to each of the plurality of network devices includes propagating the absolute slot number from the gateway device.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein at least some of the plurality of network devices are field devices performing a process control function; and wherein synchronizing communications between the plurality of network devices includes: transmitting an update from one of the field devices according to a scheduled update rate of the field devices; transitioning the field device in a sleep mode, wherein the field device does not receive or transmit data in the sleep mode; transitioning the field device from the sleep mode immediately prior to a next scheduled update; and synchronizing the field device with the wireless mesh network, including: matching a value of the absolute slot number stored at the field device with a value maintained by the wireless mesh network; and calculating a time during which the field device is scheduled to transmit data based on the matched absolute slot number and the update rate of the field device.

17. A wireless mesh network operating in a process control environment, comprising: an absolute slot number counter that stores a number of communication timeslots of a predefined duration scheduled since a formation of the wireless mesh network; a plurality of wireless field devices, each communicating with at least another one of the plurality of field devices according to a device specific schedule and including: a memory unit storing a definition of an update superframe associated with the field device, wherein the update superframe includes a repeating sequence of superframe cycles, each cycle having a number of communication timeslots sequentially numbered relative to a beginning of each cycle; and a processing unit that calculates a relative timeslot within the update superframe based on the absolute slot number; and a network manager that maintains each device specific schedule of each of the plurality of wireless field devices.

18. The wireless mesh network of claim 15, further comprising: a plurality of direct wireless connections between pairs of the plurality of wireless field devices; a plurality of graphs each including at least one of the plurality of direct wireless connections and connecting a pair of the plurality of wireless field devices; wherein the wireless mesh network propagates the a value of the absolute slot number to each of the plurality of wireless field devices along at least two of plurality of graphs.

19. The wireless network of claim 15, further comprising a gateway device that operatively couples the wireless mesh network to an outside network and wherein the gateway device maintains the absolute slot number counter.

20. The wireless network of claim 17, wherein the network manager is a software entity running in the gateway device.

21. A method for synchronizing communications in wireless mesh network operating in a process control environment and including a plurality of network devices, comprising: defining a communication timeslot of a predetermined duration, wherein each of the plurality of network devices transmits or receives data only within the communication timeslot; generating a network schedule including at least one superframe having repeating superframe cycles each having a number of communication timeslots sequentially numbered relative to a beginning of each cycle, the number of communication timeslots defining a length of the at least one superframe; maintaining an absolute slot number indicative of a number of communication timeslots scheduled since a start time of the wireless network; and synchronizing each of the plurality of network devices with the network schedule based on the absolute slot number.

22. A method for synchronizing communications in wireless mesh network operating in a process control environment and including a plurality of network devices, comprising: defining a communication timeslot of a predetermined duration, wherein each of the plurality of network devices transmits or receives data only within one of a plurality of scheduled communication timeslots; designating a first one of the plurality of network devices as a timeslot synchronization source of a second one of the plurality of network devices; sending a first data packet from the first one of the plurality of network devices to the second one of the plurality of network devices, including: sending a time adjustment value in the first data packet; and adjusting a timeslot synchronization at the second one of the plurality of network devices.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the first data packet is an acknowledgement data packet; and wherein sending a time adjustment value in the first data packet includes: calculating an expected time of arrival of a non-acknowledgement data packet at the first one of the plurality of network devices, wherein the acknowledgement data packet is sent in response to the non-acknowledgement data packet; detecting an actual time of arrival of the non-acknowledgement data packet; calculating a difference between the expected time of arrival and the actual time of arrival.

24. The method of claim 21 , further comprising: designating a third one of the plurality of network devices as a timeslot synchronization source of the first one of the plurality of network devices to form a synchronization chain including the first one of the plurality of network devices, the second one of the plurality of network devices, and the third one of the plurality of network devices.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein forming a synchronization chain includes: associating a subset of the plurality of network devices with the synchronization chain; and preventing a first one in the subset of the plurality of network devices from serving as a timeslot synchronization source of another one of the subset of the plurality of network devices if the other one of the subset of the plurality of network devices is one of a direct or an indirect synchronization source of the first one in the subset of the plurality of network devices.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the wireless mesh network includes a gateway device connecting the wireless mesh network to an external network; and wherein forming a synchronization chain includes associating the gateway device with a synchronization source of each of the plurality of network devices.