| CPC G06F 13/102 (2013.01) [G06F 1/266 (2013.01); G06F 13/1668 (2013.01); G06F 13/4247 (2013.01); G05B 2219/1215 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |
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1. A method for communicating in a communication system that includes a master controller and a plurality of slave modules connected in series with the master controller, the method comprising:
transmitting, by the master controller to each of the plurality of slave modules, a communication schedule defining an ordered sequence of messages;
transmitting, according to the communication schedule, downstream messages in a downstream direction from the master controller through an initial slave module to a terminal slave module, each of the downstream messages including header payload information with a schedule identifier that indicates an order number of the respective downstream message defined by the communication schedule;
identifying, by each of the plurality of slave modules based on the schedule identifiers included in the downstream messages, downstream messages that are associated with response information from the respective slave module;
generating, by the terminal slave module, upstream messages having schedule identifiers that correspond to the schedule identifiers included in the downstream messages;
transmitting the upstream messages from the terminal slave module in an upstream direction through the initial slave module to the master controller;
inserting, by the plurality of slave modules, the response information into upstream messages having schedule identifiers corresponding to the downstream messages identified as associated with response information from the respective slave module; and
receiving the upstream messages at the master controller.
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