Specifications

The Remote Field Bus is defined at a Metasys NxE supervisory engine or Open Data Server (ODS) Workstation
(Figure 3) through field bus integration, similar to how a local MS/TP field bus is added. The Remote Field Bus
appears on the All Items Navigation tree in the Site Management Portal UI. You can also provide a custom name
to clearly identify the type of integration.
Note: To ensure acceptable system performance, make sure that you map all devices and objects that originate
from a Remote Field Bus to a single supervisory engine, for example, if you have two NAEs (NAE-1 and
NAE-2), each with a separate Remote Field Bus. Device 1 is defined under NAE-1, and Device 2 is defined
under NAE-2. In this arrangement, make sure you do not map Device 1 to NAE-2 or map Device 2 to NAE-1.
If you mix remote field device mapping between supervisory engines, the Metasys system may start very
slowly, and devices may have difficulty staying online.
Figure 3: Example of a Remote Field Bus with ODS
Applications for the Remote Field Bus include:
• Any intra-building, inter-building, or remote location that has IP network connections readily available
• Locations where it is cost prohibitive or difficult to run MS/TP wiring between devices and the NxEs, due to
distance, cost, accessibility, or customer factors
• Locations where field controllers are segregated from the NxEs
• Intra-building applications that connect segregated locations within a building (for example, connecting penthouses
to mechanical rooms)
8MS/TP Communications Bus Technical Bulletin