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US5048014A
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Dynamic network reconfiguration technique for directed-token expanded-address LAN
Assignee: Datapoint Corp
•
Filing: 1990-07-24
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Granted: 1991-09-10
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Expires: 2010-07-24
Abstract
Abstract Additional nodes beyond those permitted by the size of the address field of a standard network operating protocol, may be added to a directed token LAN, and the added nodes may be automatically and dynamically configured or reconfigured into a token passing loop. The added nodes, referred to as enhanced nodes, interoperably combine a standard reconfiguration sequence of a standard network operational protocol with an enhanced reconfiguration sequence of an enhanced protocol in order to send tokens to establish the next active nodes of the network and thereby establish the token passing loop through all of the standard and enhanced nodes.
Inventors
- 👤 Michael A. Fischer
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-29 09:21
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04L; H04L12/00; H04L12/28; H04L12/40; H04L12/40169; H04L12/407; H04L12/417; H04L12/42
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 56
Claim 1
Independent Claim
267 words
A directed token local area network (LAN), comprising: a plurality of at least three nodes, each node having a unique address or ID, at least one of the nodes being a basic node, all basic nodes having IDs which fall within a basic range of permissible IDs, at least one of the nodes being an enhanced node, each enhanced node having an ID which falls within an enhanced range of permissible IDs or within the basic range, all of the IDs in the enhanced range being greater than those permitted in the basic range, at least one of the enhanced nodes having an ID in the enhanced range; and reconfiguration means associated with all of the nodes and operative for passing tokens to locate the next active node and to establish automatically all of the active nodes in a token loop according to the IDs of the nodes to enable all of the active nodes to receive tokens during normal LAN operation, said reconfiguration means executing a standard reconfiguration sequence for locating and establishing all of the active nodes with IDs in the basic range in a sequence in a basic segment of the token loop, said reconfiguration means also executing an enhanced reconfiguration sequence for locating and establishing all of the active nodes with IDs in the enhanced range in a sequence in an enhanced segment of the token loop, the basic and enhanced segments defining the token loop, and the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence commencing with the first enhanced node to receive the token in conjunction with execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
267 words
A directed token local area network (LAN), comprising: a plurality of at least three nodes, each node having a unique address or ID, at least one of the nodes being a basic node, all basic nodes having IDs which fall within a basic range of permissible IDs, at least one of the nodes being an enhanced node, each enhanced node having an ID which falls within an enhanced range of permissible IDs or within the basic range, all of the IDs in the enhanced range being greater than those permitted in the basic range, at least one of the enhanced nodes having an ID in the enhanced range; and reconfiguration means associated with all of the nodes and operative for passing tokens to locate the next active node and to establish automatically all of the active nodes in a token loop according to the IDs of the nodes to enable all of the active nodes to receive tokens during normal LAN operation, said reconfiguration means executing a standard reconfiguration sequence for locating and establishing all of the active nodes with IDs in the basic range in a sequence in a basic segment of the token loop, said reconfiguration means also executing an enhanced reconfiguration sequence for locating and establishing all of the active nodes with IDs in the enhanced range in a sequence in an enhanced segment of the token loop, the basic and enhanced segments defining the token loop, and the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence commencing with the first enhanced node to receive the token in conjunction with execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
38 words
A LAN as defined in claim 1 wherein: the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence terminates with the last active node in the enhanced range passing the token to the ID of a node in the basic range.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
36 words
A LAN as defined in claim 2 wherein: the execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence commences upon the expiration of a predetermined time period established by the ID of an active node in the basic range.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
48 words
A LAN as defined in claim 3 wherein: all active enhanced nodes have IDs in the enhanced range; and the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence commences upon the expiration of a predetermined time period established by the ID of an active enhanced node in the enhanced range.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
44 words
A LAN as defined in claim 4 wherein: the predetermined time period established by the ID of an active enhanced node in the enhanced range is greater than the predetermined time period established by the ID of an active node in the basic range.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
47 words
A LAN as defined in claim 2 wherein: all active enhanced nodes have IDs in the enhanced range; and the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence commences upon the expiration of a predetermined time period established by the ID of one active node in the enhanced range.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
56 words
A LAN as defined in claim 6 wherein: the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence commences with said one active enhanced node in the enhanced range; and said one active enhanced node includes means for responding to a token pass to a predetermined ID of a node in the basic range to complete the token loop.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
46 words
A LAN as defined in claims 2 wherein: at least one active enhanced node has an ID in the basic range; and the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence begins upon receipt of a token by an active enhanced node in the basic range of addresses.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
36 words
A LAN as defined in claim 8 wherein: the execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence commences upon the expiration of a predetermined time period established by the ID of an active node in the basic range.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
48 words
A LAN as defined in claim 2 wherein: the token pass from the last active enhanced node in the enhanced range to the ID of a node in the basic range allows the basic reconfiguration sequence to be completed through the remaining active nodes in the basic range.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
36 words
A LAN as defined in claim 1 wherein: each enhanced node has at least one enhanced operational capability which all basic nodes do not have but which appears to basic nodes as basic LAN operational activity.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
18 words
A LAN as defined in claim 1 wherein: said reconfiguration means is distributed among all of the nodes.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
24 words
A LAN as defined in claim 12 wherein: said reconfiguration means which executes the enhanced reconfiguration sequence is present only at the enhanced nodes.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
65 words
A LAN as defined in claim 13 wherein: the reconfiguration means of each basic node transmits and responds to standard tokens (ITTs) during execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence; and the reconfiguration means of each enhanced node transmits one of either extended tokens (XITTs) or enhanced tokens (XTOKs) and responds to standard tokens, extended tokens or enhanced tokens during execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
26 words
A LAN as defined in claim 14 wherein: the reconfiguration means of each basic node also responds to extended tokens during execution of the reconfiguration sequences.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
76 words
A LAN as defined in claim 15 wherein: communications between basic nodes and from basic nodes to enhanced nodes occur in accordance with a basic communication protocol; and communications between enhanced nodes and from enhanced nodes to basic nodes occur in accordance with an enhanced communication protocol, the enhanced protocol includes a first signalling scheme which is recognizeable only by enhanced nodes and a second signalling scheme which is recognizable by both enhanced and basic nodes.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
44 words
A LAN as defined in claim 16 wherein: each extended token contains signal elements which are recognizable in the basic and enhanced protocols and which contain additional signal elements which are transparent in the basic protocol but which convey information in the enhanced protocol.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
30 words
A LAN as defined in claim 16 wherein: each enhanced token contains signal elements which are recognizable only in the enhanced protocol and which are transparent in the basic protocol.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
73 words
A LAN as defined in claims 1 or 15 wherein: the execution of both the basic and enhanced reconfiguration sequences involves transmitting a token to an ID which is incremented relative to the ID of the node transmitting the token and recording the incremented ID as the next ID (NID) in the token loop upon sensing network activity created by the successful receipt and use of the token by the next active node.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
24 words
A LAN as defined in claim 19 wherein: the recorded incremented ID is that of the next active node in the reconfigured token loop.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
85 words
A LAN as defined in claim 20 wherein: after the token loop has been initially established, one of the basic and enhanced reconfiguration sequences are selectively executed upon a previously active node becoming inactive, by any single node transmitting a token to an incremented ID relative to the NID when the node at the previous NID becomes inactive and recording the new incremented NID upon sensing network activity associated with the successful receipt of the token at the next active node at the new NID.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
34 words
A LAN as defined in claim 20 wherein: the basic and enhanced reconfiguration sequences are executed at all of the nodes to establish a new token loop when a previously inactive node becomes active.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
96 words
A LAN as defined in claim 1 wherein: communications between enhanced nodes and from enhanced nodes to basic nodes occur in accordance with an enhanced communication protocol, the enhanced protocol includes a first signalling scheme which is recognizeable only by enhanced nodes and a second signalling scheme which is recognizable by both enhanced and basic nodes; communications in both protocols involve transmitting frames of data, each data frame having an address field; and the address field in the basic frames has a size limitation which limits the maximum number of permissible nodes in the basic range.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
46 words
A LAN as defined in claim 23 wherein: the address field in the enhanced frames has a size limitation which limits the maximum number of nodes in the enhanced range to a number substantially greater than the maximum number of permissible nodes in the basic range.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
61 words
A LAN as defined in claim 1 wherein: at least one enhanced node with an ID in the enhanced range includes means for responding to a token addressed to a predetermined ID in the basic range in the token loop, said one enhanced node normally responding to data packet frame transmissions addressed to it at its ID in the extended range.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
40 words
A LAN as defined in claim 25 wherein: the predetermined ID in the basic range to which the means for responding to tokens of the one enhanced node responds, is available to designate broadcast data frames to all the nodes.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
19 words
A LAN as defined in claim 26 wherein: the predetermined ID designates broadcast data frames to all the nodes.
Claim 29
Independent Claim
276 words
A method of reconfiguring a token loop of a directed token local area network (LAN) which comprises a plurality of at least three nodes, each node having a unique address or ID, at least one of the nodes being a basic node, all basic nodes having IDs which fall within a basic range of permissible IDs, at least one of the nodes being an enhanced node, each enhanced node having an ID which falls an enhanced range of permissible IDs or within the basic range, all of the IDs in the enhanced range being greater than those permitted in the basic range, at least one of the enhanced nodes having an ID in the enhanced range, and reconfiguration means associated with all of the nodes and operative for passing tokens to locate the next active node and to establish automatically all of the active nodes in a token loop according to the IDs of the nodes to enable all of the active nodes to receive tokens during normal LAN operation, said reconfiguring method comprising the steps of: executing a standard reconfiguration sequence for locating and establishing all of the active nodes with IDs in the basic range in a sequence in a basic segment of the token loop; executing an enhanced reconfiguration sequence for locating and establishing all of the active nodes with IDs in the enhanced range in a sequence in an enhanced segment of the token loop; defining the token loop by the basic and enhanced segments; and commencing the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence with the first enhanced node to receive the token in conjunction with execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence.
Claim 30
Independent Claim
276 words
A method of reconfiguring a token loop of a directed token local area network (LAN) which comprises a plurality of at least three nodes, each node having a unique address or ID, at least one of the nodes being a basic node, all basic nodes having IDs which fall within a basic range of permissible IDs, at least one of the nodes being an enhanced node, each enhanced node having an ID which falls an enhanced range of permissible IDs or within the basic range, all of the IDs in the enhanced range being greater than those permitted in the basic range, at least one of the enhanced nodes having an ID in the enhanced range, and reconfiguration means associated with all of the nodes and operative for passing tokens to locate the next active node and to establish automatically all of the active nodes in a token loop according to the IDs of the nodes to enable all of the active nodes to receive tokens during normal LAN operation, said reconfiguring method comprising the steps of: executing a standard reconfiguration sequence for locating and establishing all of the active nodes with IDs in the basic range in a sequence in a basic segment of the token loop; executing an enhanced reconfiguration sequence for locating and establishing all of the active nodes with IDs in the enhanced range in a sequence in an enhanced segment of the token loop; defining the token loop by the basic and enhanced segments; and commencing the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence with the first enhanced node to receive the token in conjunction with execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
39 words
A method as defined in claim 28 further comprising: terminating the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence with the last active node in the enhanced range passing the token to the ID of a node in the basic range.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
37 words
A method as defined in claim 29 further comprising: commencing the execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence upon the expiration of a predetermined time period established by the ID of an active node in the basic range.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
50 words
A method as defined in claim 30 wherein all active enhanced nodes have IDs in the enhanced range, and further comprising: commencing the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence upon the expiration of a predetermined time period established by the ID of an active enhanced node in the enhanced range.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
44 words
A method as defined in claim 31 wherein the predetermined time period established by the ID of an active enhanced node in the enhanced range is greater than the predetermined time period established by the ID of an active node in the basic range.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
50 words
A method as defined in claim 29 wherein all active enhanced nodes have IDs in the enhanced range, and further comprising: commencing the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence upon the expiration of a predetermined time period established by the ID of one active enhanced node in the enhanced range.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
54 words
A method as defined in claim 33 further comprising: commencing the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence with said one active enhanced node in the enhanced range; and completing the token loop by said one active enhanced node responding to a token pass to a predetermined ID of a node in the basic range.
Claim 37
Independent Claim
48 words
A method as defined in claims 29 wherein at least one active enhanced node has an ID in the basic range, and further comprising: beginning the execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence upon receipt of a token by an active enhanced node in the basic range of addresses.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
37 words
A method as defined in claim 35 further comprising: commencing the execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence upon the expiration of a predetermined time period established by the ID of an active node in the basic range.
Claim 39
Dependent Claim
49 words
A method as defined in claim 29 further comprising: passing the token from the last active enhanced node in the enhanced range to the ID of a node in the basic range to allow completing of the basic reconfiguration sequence through the remaining active nodes in the basic range.
Claim 40
Dependent Claim
38 words
A method as defined in claim 28 further comprising: providing each enhanced node with at least one enhanced operational capability which all basic nodes do not have but which appears to basic nodes as basic LAN operational activity.
Claim 41
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method as defined in claim 28 further comprising: distributing one said reconfiguration means at each of the nodes.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method as defined in claim 39 further comprising: executing the enhnaced reconfiguration sequence only at the enhanced nodes.
Claim 43
Dependent Claim
60 words
A method as defined in claim 40 further comprising: transmitting and responding to standard tokens (ITTs) during execution of the basic reconfiguration sequence at each basic node; and transmitting one of either extended tokens (XITTs) or enhanced tokens (XTOKs) and responding to standard tokens, extended tokens or enhanced tokens during execution of the enhanced reconfiguration sequence at each enhanced node.
Claim 44
Dependent Claim
23 words
A method as defined in claim 41 further comprising: responding to extended tokens during execution of the reconfiguration sequences at each basic node.
Claim 45
Dependent Claim
76 words
A method as defined in claim 42 further comprising: communicating between basic nodes and from basic nodes to enhanced nodes in accordance with a basic communication protocol; communicating between enhanced nodes and from enhanced nodes to basic nodes in accordance with an enhanced communication protocol; and including in the enhanced protocol a first signalling scheme which is recognizeable only by enhanced nodes and a second signalling scheme which is recognizable by both enhanced and basic nodes.
Claim 46
Dependent Claim
44 words
A method as defined in claim 43 further comprising: containing in each extended token, signal elements which are recognizable in the basic and enhanced protocols and additional signal elements which are transparent in the basic protocol but which convey information in the enhanced protocol.
Claim 47
Dependent Claim
32 words
A method as defined in claim 43 further comprising: containing in each enhanced token, signal elements which are recognizable only in the enhanced protocol and which are transparent in the basic protocol.
Claim 48
Independent Claim
72 words
A method as defined in claims 28 or 42 further comprising: executing both the basic and enhanced reconfiguration sequences involves transmitting a token to an ID which is incremented relative to the ID of the node transmitting the token and recording the incremented ID as the next ID (NID) in the token loop upon sensing network activity created by the successful receipt and use of the token by the next active node.
Claim 49
Dependent Claim
24 words
A method as defined in claim 46 wherein the recorded incremented ID is that of the next active node in the reconfigured token loop.
Claim 50
Dependent Claim
83 words
A method as defined in claim 47 further comprising: after intially establishing the token loop, selectively executing one of the basic and enhanced reconfiguration sequences upon a previously active node becoming inactive, by any single node transmitting a token to an incremented ID relative to the NID when the node at the previous NID becomes inactive and recording the new incremented NID upon sensing network activity associated with the successful receipt of the token at the next active node at the new NID.
Claim 51
Dependent Claim
34 words
A method as defined in claim 47 further comprising: executing the basic and enhanced reconfiguration sequences at all of the nodes to establish a new token loop when a previously inactive node becomes active.
Claim 52
Dependent Claim
98 words
A method as defined in claim 28 further comprising: communicating between enhanced nodes and from enhanced nodes to basic nodes occur in accordance with an enhanced communicating protocol; including in the enhanced protocol a first signalling scheme which is recognizeable only be enhanced nodes and a second signalling scheme which is recognizable by both enhanced and basic nodes; and communicating in both protocols by transmitting frames of data, each data frame having an address field, the address field in the basic frames having a size limitation which limits the maximum number of permissible nodes in the basic range.
Claim 53
Dependent Claim
46 words
A method as defined in claim 50 wherein the address field in the enhanced frames has a size limitation which limits the maximum number of nodes in the enhanced range to a number substantially greater than the maximum number of permissible nodes in the basic range.
Claim 54
Dependent Claim
58 words
A method as defined in claim 28 wherein at least one enhanced node with an ID in the enhanced range: responding to a token addressed to a predetermined ID in the basic range in the token loop; and normally responding to data packet frame transmissions addressed to said one enhanced node at its ID in the extended range.
Claim 55
Dependent Claim
33 words
A method as defined in claim 52 wherein the predetermined ID in the basic range to which the one enhanced node responds, is available to designate broadcast data frames to all the nodes.
Claim 56
Dependent Claim
19 words
A method as defined in claim 53 wherein the predetermined ID designates broadcast data frames to all the nodes.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
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| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2002-09-09 | 2003-03-11 | 2003-09-10 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |