Disruptionless message capturing within an industrial control system

1. A system for disruptionless message capturing within an industrial control system comprising:

a device integrator processor configured for communicating electronic data messages in a process control system;

a memory device coupled to the device integrator processor;

a diagnostic driver;

a plurality of serial interfaces configured to communicatively couple the device integrator processor to a set of two or more serial field devices, the serial field devices for use in an industrial process of the process control system, the device integrator processor communicating the electronic data messages with the serial field devices via the serial interfaces in accordance with at least one serial electronic data communication protocol; and

an Ethernet interface configured to communicatively couple the diagnostic driver to a diagnostic computing device in accordance with an Ethernet electronic data communication protocol;

wherein the diagnostic driver comprises processor-executable instructions stored on the memory device, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the device integrator processor, configure the diagnostic driver to:

detect an abnormal condition in the communicative coupling of the device integrator processor and the serial field devices via the serial interfaces,

in response to the detected abnormal condition, capture one or more of the electronic data messages communicated with the serial field devices via the serial interfaces in accordance with the serial communication protocol without disrupting said communication thereof, the captured electronic data messages being stored in the memory device, and

transmit the captured electronic data messages to the diagnostic computing device via the Ethernet interface for diagnosis thereof relating to the abnormal condition, and

wherein the captured electronic data messages are indicative of the abnormal condition in the communicative coupling of the device integrator processor and the serial field devices via the serial interfaces.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transmission of the captured electronic data messages is on demand.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the diagnostic driver further comprises processor-executable instructions stored on the memory device that, when executed by the device integrator processor, create a circular queue within the memory device for initializing the diagnostic driver and create a dedicated task for capturing the electronic data messages.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the diagnostic driver further comprises processor-executable instructions stored on the memory device that, when executed by the device integrator processor, further configure the diagnostic driver to:

store the captured electronic data messages in the queue; and

transmit a captured message to the computing device by popping the captured electronic data message from a front of the queue and including the popped electronic data message within a User Datagram Protocol packet.

5. The system of claim 1 ,

wherein the Ethernet interface is further configured to communicatively couple the device integrator processor to one or more Ethernet field devices for use in an industrial process of the process control system for supporting communication of electronic data messages with the Ethernet field devices in accordance with the Ethernet electronic data communication protocol,

wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed by the device integrator processor, further configure the diagnostic driver to capture one or more of the electronic data messages communicated with the Ethernet field devices via the Ethernet interface in accordance with the Ethernet electronic data communication protocol without disrupting said communication thereof, and

wherein the captured electronic data messages are indicative of an abnormal condition in the communicative coupling of the device integrator processor and the Ethernet field devices via the Ethernet interface.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed by the device integrator processor, further configure the diagnostic driver to:

capture a snapshot of a health state of the serial interfaces, and

transmit the captured snapshot to the computing device via the Ethernet interface.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising the computing device, wherein the computing device is configured to:

receive the transmitted electronic data messages from the diagnostic driver;

parse the received messages;

filter the parsed messages; and

store the filtered messages for diagnosis of the abnormal condition in the communicative coupling of the device integrator processor and the serial field devices via the serial interfaces.

8. A system for disruptionless message capturing within an industrial control system comprising:

a device integrator processor configured for communicating electronic data messages in a process control system;

a memory device coupled to the device integrator processor;

a diagnostic driver; and

an Ethernet interface configured to:

communicatively couple the device integrator processor to two or more Ethernet field devices, the Ethernet field devices for use in an industrial process of the process control system, the device integrator processor communicating the electronic data messages with the Ethernet field devices via the Ethernet interface in accordance with one or more Ethernet electronic data communication protocols, and

communicatively couple the diagnostic driver to a diagnostic computing device in accordance with at least one of the one or more Ethernet electronic data communication protocols;

wherein the diagnostic driver comprises processor-executable instructions stored on the memory device, and wherein the instructions, when executed by the device integrator processor, configure the diagnostic driver to:

detect an abnormal condition in the communicative coupling of the device integrator processor and the Ethernet field devices via the Ethernet interface, and

in response to the detected abnormal condition, capture one or more of the electronic data messages communicated with the Ethernet field devices via the Ethernet interface in accordance with the one or more Ethernet electronic data communication protocols without disrupting said communication thereof, the captured electronic data messages being stored in the memory device, and

wherein the captured electronic data messages are indicative of the abnormal condition in the communicative coupling of the device integrator processor and the Ethernet field devices via the Ethernet interface.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed by the device integrator processor, further configure the diagnostic driver to transmit, on demand, each captured electronic data message to the diagnostic computing device via the Ethernet interface.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the diagnostic driver further comprises processor-executable instructions stored on the memory device that, when executed by the device integrator processor, create a circular queue within the memory device for initializing the diagnostic driver and create a dedicated task for capturing the electronic data messages.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the diagnostic driver further comprises processor-executable instructions stored on the memory device that, when executed by the device integrator processor, further configure the diagnostic driver to:

store the captured electronic data messages in the queue; and

transmit a captured electronic data message to the diagnostic computing device by popping the captured electronic data message from a front of the queue and including the popped electronic data message within a User Datagram Protocol packet.

12. The system of claim 8 , further comprising one or more serial interfaces configured to communicatively couple the device integrator processor to two or more serial field devices for use in an industrial process of the process control system for supporting communication of electronic data messages with the serial field devices in accordance with at least one serial electronic data communication protocol,

wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed by the device integrator processor, further configure the diagnostic driver to capture one or more of the electronic data messages communicated with the serial field devices via the one or more serial interfaces and the serial electronic data communication protocol without disrupting said communication thereof, and

wherein the captured electronic data messages are indicative of an abnormal condition in the communicative coupling of the device integrator processor and the serial field devices via the one or more serial interfaces.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the processor-executable instructions, when executed by the device integrator processor, further configure the diagnostic driver to:

capture a snapshot of a health state of the Ethernet interface, and

transmit the captured snapshot to the diagnostic computing device via the Ethernet interface.

14. The system of claim 8 , further comprising the diagnostic computing device, wherein the diagnostic computing device is configured to:

receive the transmitted electronic data messages from the diagnostic driver;

parse the received messages;

filter the parsed messages; and

store the filtered messages for diagnosis of the abnormal condition in the communicative coupling of the device integrator processor and the Ethernet field devices via the Ethernet interface.

15. A tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed, configure a device integrator processor of a gateway device for disruptionless message capturing within an industrial control system, the instructions comprising:

coupling the device integrator processor of the gateway device to two or more serial field devices in a process control system via one or more serial interfaces of the gateway device, said coupling to the serial field devices supporting communication of serial electronic data messages with the serial field devices in accordance with at least one serial electronic data communication protocol;

coupling the device integrator processor to two or more Ethernet field devices in the process control system via one or more Ethernet interfaces of the gateway device, said coupling to the Ethernet field devices supporting communication of Ethernet electronic data messages with the Ethernet field devices in accordance with an Ethernet data communication protocol;

coupling a diagnostic driver of the gateway device to a workstation computing device via the one or more Ethernet interfaces, said coupling to the workstation computing device supporting communication of diagnostic Ethernet electronic data packets between the diagnostic driver and the workstation computing device;

initializing the diagnostic driver within the gateway device and causing the diagnostic driver to capture one or more of the serial electronic data messages communicated with the serial field devices via the one or more serial interfaces without disrupting the communication of the serial electronic data messages and to capture one or more of the Ethernet electronic data messages communicated with the Ethernet field devices via the one or more Ethernet interfaces without disrupting the communication of the Ethernet electronic data messages,

wherein at least one of:

the captured serial electronic data messages are indicative of an abnormal condition in the coupling of the device integrator processor to the serial field devices via the one or more serial interfaces, and

the captured Ethernet electronic data messages are indicative of an abnormal condition in the coupling of the device integrator processor to the Ethernet field devices via the one or more Ethernet interfaces.

16. The tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein said initializing comprises:

creating a queue within the memory device, and

creating a dedicated task for capturing the serial electronic data messages and the Ethernet electronic data messages.

17. The tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , further comprising instructions for storing, by the diagnostic driver, the captured serial electronic data messages and the captured Ethernet electronic data messages in the queue.

18. The tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , further comprising instructions for transmitting, on demand, the captured serial electronic data messages and the captured Ethernet electronic data messages to the workstation computing device via the one or more Ethernet interfaces.

19. The tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18 , wherein said transmitting comprises popping the serial electronic data messages and the Ethernet electronic data messages from the queue and including the popped serial electronic data messages and Ethernet electronic data messages within a User Datagram Protocol packet.

20. The tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , further comprising instructions for:

capturing, by the diagnostic driver, one or more snapshots of a health state of the one or more serial interfaces and the one or more Ethernet interfaces; and

transmitting the captured snapshots to the workstation computing device via the one or more Ethernet interfaces.