Expandable and contractible local area network system
First Claim
1. A station in a communications network including a communications channel for the transmission of packets of information, and a plurality of stations coupled to said channel, said a station comprising:
- address selection means for randomly selecting a potential address from a range of permissible addresses;
transmitting means for transmitting an information packet to said selected address so as to test said communications network for possible existence of another station having said selected address; and
receiving means for receiving an acknowledgment from said another station;
said address selection means being adapted to randomly select a new potential address if said another station acknowledges receipt of said information packet.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
This disclosure relates to a system and method for the synchronization of variable-length messages being transmitted between stations of a local area contention network where the messages are made up of a variable number of fixed-length packets. This system is adapted for automatic address assignment of different stations of the network so that the network may be expanded or contracted by adding stations and removing stations respectively. In this manner, a very reliable network is provided in that the failure of any particular station does not interfere with the functioning of the other stations in the network or the network itself. In addition, the system includes provision for associating various server stations with a given procedure so that a client station may broadcast a request for a procedure and corresponding server stations will send the response to the client station containing the network identification of the server station. If two or more stations contain the particular procedure called for, the first one to respond to the client station is selected.
35 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A station in a communications network including a communications channel for the transmission of packets of information, and a plurality of stations coupled to said channel, said a station comprising:
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address selection means for randomly selecting a potential address from a range of permissible addresses; transmitting means for transmitting an information packet to said selected address so as to test said communications network for possible existence of another station having said selected address; and receiving means for receiving an acknowledgment from said another station; said address selection means being adapted to randomly select a new potential address if said another station acknowledges receipt of said information packet. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. In a station in a communications network including a communications channel for the transmission of packets of information, and a plurality of stations coupled to said channel, the method comprising:
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randomly selecting a potential address from a range of permissible addresses; transmitting an information packet to said selected address so as to test said communications network for possible existence of another station having said selected address; receiving an acknowledgment from said another station; and selecting a new random address if said another station acknowledges receipt of said information packet. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification