Method and a device for communication among equal-access stations of a ring-shaped serial fiber-optic bus

A device for providing communication among equal-access stations of a ring-shaped, serial fiber-optic bus, comprising:

• a respective interface module at each of the stations;
• and
• two respective bus connector sockets at each of the stations, each respective interface module being connected to the serial bus via the two respective bus connector sockets;
• wherein one of the stations is parameterized as a dispatcher station, and others of the stations being parameterized as transceiver stations, the dispatcher station including a list of all messages to be transmitted, and each of the transceiver stations having a read authorization
• wherein each respective interface module includes a programmable microchip having an associated erasable read-only memory, a read-write memory, and a clock generator, each respective interface module including a system connector, an opto-electrical and electro-optical converter, and a voltage source, each of the respective bus connector sockets being linked to the programmable microchip by the converter, the programmable microchip being connected to the system connector via signal lines;
• wherein the programmable microchip is provided as a programmable gate array, and
• wherein the read-write memory has stored thereon a communications controller comprising a task table that includes a number of messages to be sent in a bus cycle by the dispatcher station, an address and channel number as a subaddress of each station, and addresses of blank messages and special messages to be used to fill up the bus cycle between the last generated addressed message and the synchronization message.

A device for providing communication among equal-access stations of a ring-shaped, serial fiber-optic bus, comprising:

• a respective interface module at each of the stations;
• and
• two respective bus connector sockets at each of the stations, each respective interface module being connected to the serial bus via the two respective bus connector sockets;
• wherein one of the stations is parameterized as a dispatcher station, and others of the stations being parameterized as transceiver stations, the dispatcher station including a list of all messages to be transmitted, and each of the transceiver stations having a direct-access read authorization which allows reading of data written in the transmitted messages by each of the transceiver stations, and
• wherein the each interface module includes a read-write memory that has stored thereon a communications controller comprising a task table that includes a number of messages to be sent in a bus cycle by the dispatcher station, an address and channel number as a subaddress of each station, and addresses of blank messages and special messages to be used to fill up the bus cycle between the last generated addressed message and the synchronization message.