Addressing system for simultaneously polling plural remote stations
First Claim
1. A system having a central controller for polling a plurality of remote control modules, said controller polling groups of said remote control modules simultaneously and for resolving contentions when two or more remote control modules respond to a polling request by polling continuously smaller and/or different groups of remote control modules until contentions are resolved, said system comprising:
- central controller means for transmitting a polling message, said polling message including an address of N bits for defining a group of addresses relating to a group of remote control modules selected by said central controller to be polled;
communications means connected to said central controller;
a plurality of remote control modules connected to said communication means for receiving said polling message, each of said remote control modules having a unique N bit address stored therein and address comparison means for comparing said N bit address in said poll message to said N bit address of said remote control module to determine if said remote control module is within said group of remote control modules to be polled.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a contention polling arrangement wherein polling messages are transmitted by a central controller for simultaneously polling a group of remote stations, the polling message contains an address which defines the entire range of remote stations to be polled and the remote stations will respond if their addresses fall between the address contained in the polling message and an address resulting from converting any trailing 0'"'"'s of the address in the polling message to 1'"'"'s.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A system having a central controller for polling a plurality of remote control modules, said controller polling groups of said remote control modules simultaneously and for resolving contentions when two or more remote control modules respond to a polling request by polling continuously smaller and/or different groups of remote control modules until contentions are resolved, said system comprising:
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central controller means for transmitting a polling message, said polling message including an address of N bits for defining a group of addresses relating to a group of remote control modules selected by said central controller to be polled; communications means connected to said central controller; a plurality of remote control modules connected to said communication means for receiving said polling message, each of said remote control modules having a unique N bit address stored therein and address comparison means for comparing said N bit address in said poll message to said N bit address of said remote control module to determine if said remote control module is within said group of remote control modules to be polled. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system having a central controller for polling a plurality of remote control modules, said controller polling groups of said remote control modules simultaneously and for resolving contentions when two or more remote control modules respond to a polling request by polling continuously smaller and/or different groups of remote control modules until contentions are resolved, said system comprising:
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central controller means for transmitting a polling message, said polling message including an address defining a group of addresses relating to a group of remote control modules selected by said central controller to be polled, said address potentially containing trailing "0'"'"'s", said trailing "0'"'"'s" being a 0 in the least significant bit position of said address and any 0'"'"'s which are contiguous thereto; communication means connected to said central controller; a plurality of remote control modules connected to said communication means for receiving said polling message, each of said remote control modules having a unique address stored therein and including means for determining whether its address falls within a range established by the address contained in the polling message and an address resulting from converting any trailing "0'"'"'s" in the address of the polling message to "1'"'"'s". - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A station arranged for receiving a polling message from a remote station, said polling message containing an address of N bits for defining a group of addresses relating to a group of stations selected to be polled, said station comprising:
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receiving means for receiving said polling message; address storage means for storing an N bit station address unique to said station; and
,address comparison means for comparing said N bit address in said polling message to said N bit station address of said address storage means to determine if said N bit station address is within said group of addresses defined by said N bit address contained in said polling message.
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- 17. The station of claimed 16 wherein said address comparison means comprises means for responding to any address between said address in said polling message and an address resulting from converting any contiguous trailing "0'"'"'s" at the end of said address in said polling message to "1'"'"'s".
Specification