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US 5,499,374 AGranted
Event driven communication network
AssigneePitney Bowes Inc.
InventorsPeter C. Di Giulio, David K. Lee, David W. Riley, Frederick W. Ryan, Jr.
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Abstract
A cost-effective motion control system communication architecture is provided that supports a centralized control node, distributed control nodes, and smart I/O peripheral control nodes. Networks designed using this architecture, which employs a serial bus, may be readily modified or expanded. The architecture supports both real-time highly periodic communications and event-driven peer-to-peer communications.
Claims20
A communication network comprising:
- a) a bus
- b) a plurality of control nodes responsive to predetermined events to transmit messages on said bus, wherein a possibility of contention among said nodes exists;
- c) a central node for transmitting an access control signal on said bus, said access control signal being followed by a contention avoiding time period, said time period being shorter than the duration of at least some of said messages and said time period comprising a plurality of successive time slots;
- wherein,
- d) at least one of said control nodes is responsive to said access control signal to select a predetermined one of said time slots to begin transmitting one of said messages on said bus if and only if a one of said events to which said control node is responsive has occurred and no other of said nodes has begun transmitting in an earlier said time slots.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.