Methods for arbitrating the role of bus master among a plurality of host devices

A method for communicating between a first host device and a second host device which are communicatively coupled to one another via a data channel and a control channel, the method comprising:

• during a link establishment phase and via the control channel, establishing a common time reference between the first host device and the second host device;
• during an arbitration phase following the link establishment phase and via the control channel:
• transmitting, from the first host device to the second host device, a first message which specifies information for allocating one or more time slots to the first host device with respect to the common time reference during which the first host device will act as a bus master while communicating with the second host device via the data channel;
• transmitting, from the second host device to the first host device, a second message which specifies information for allocating one or more time slots to the second host device with respect to the common time reference during which the second host device will act as the bus master while communicating with the first host device via the data channel;
• and
• based on a set of rules accessible to both the first host device and the second host device, the first message and the second message, determining, at each of the first and second host devices, a communication schedule which defines the one or more time slots allocated to the first host device and the one or more time slots allocated to the second host device, wherein the one or more time slots allocated to the first host device do not temporally overlap with the one or more time slots allocated to the second host device;
• and
• during a data communication phase following the arbitration phase and via the data channel, communicating data between the first host device and the second host device in accordance with the communication schedule.