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AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorsIan M. Simmons, David J. Woolgar, Norbert N. Eigeldinger, Rainer G. Zwing, Paul D. Wolf
Estimating the term…
A method is disclosed to determine the topology of a network (600) comprising a master node (602) and one or more slave nodes (614, 618, 622) interconnected using unidirectional data connections (610, 628, 634). The master node (602) makes available data to succeeding nodes and a slave node (622) reads data from a preceding node (618), the read data comprising information of a path from master node to the slave node. A further method is disclosed to configure the path by sending data from the slave node (622) to all nodes on the path via bidirectional data connections (628, 612, 632) between nodes. In a preferred embodiment, a home entertainment system (600) employing HDMI is a suitable network and comprises a presentation component, for example a TV (602), operable to function as the master node; the nodes of the network being interconnected using HDMI cordsets (608, 624, 616). The HDMI specification comprises the DDC bus to support the above mentioned unidirectional data connections (610, 628, 634) and the CEC bus to support the above mentioned bidirectional data connections (628, 612, 632).
A method to determine the topology of a network, the network comprising a master node and at least one slave node interconnected by means of unidirectional data connections, wherein the master node is operable to connect via a first port to a first immediately succeeding slave node and to make available data for reading by said first immediately succeeding slave node, and wherein said data is adapted in dependence on the identity of said first port, the method comprising the steps of, for a slave node operable to connect via a second port to a second immediately succeeding node:
A method to configure a path between a master node and a slave node of a network in which the topology of nodes within the network has been previously determined, the method comprising the steps of, for the slave node:
A network comprising a master node and at least one slave node interconnected by unidirectional data connections whereby the flow of data is in a direction away from the master node towards the at least one slave node, wherein a node makes available data at an output port for reading by an immediately succeeding node, the data being adapted in dependence on the identity of said output port such that when a slave node reads data from an immediately preceding node, said data comprises the identity of an output port of said immediately preceding node.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.