A communication control device stores reception data received from a network in any one of a plurality of reception queues to which different priorities have been given in advance to transfer the reception data to a main memory. The communication control device includes a reference table and a selection unit. In the reference table, at least one of a source address, a destination address, and an Ethernet frame type of the reception data to be stored is defined for at least one of the plurality of reception queues. The selection unit selects a reception queue in which the reception data is to be stored with reference to the reference table using at least one of the source address, the destination address, and the Ethernet frame type of the reception data.

A multidrop system configured to be installed within a motor control center (MCC) of an industrial automation system includes a trunkline. The trunkline includes multiple multidrop make and break devices connected through a trunkline cable. Each of the multidrop make and break device includes a first network component, and a second network component. The first network component is configured to form a first subnet over the trunkline. The second network component is configured to couple a MCC withdrawable unit and form a second subnet over a branchline that connects one or more nodes within the MCC withdrawable unit. The multidrop make and break device is configured to couple the MCC withdrawable unit to, and decouple the MCC withdrawable unit from, the second network component without disrupting the first subnet.

A method for operating a local bus, in particular a ring bus, including data bus participants, as well as a local bus master are described. The method comprises transmitting a first identifier of a cycle frame, the first identifier defining the beginning of the cycle frame; transmitting process data and management data over the local bus, the process data and management data being transmitted within the cycle frame, at least one isochronous data packet containing the process data being transmitted in a first time interval for the first identifier, and, if management data is transmitted within the cycle frame, this management data is transmitted separately from the process data.

A network interface module for coupling a host device to a switched network as a network node is described. The network interface module comprises a single half-duplex port for communicatively coupling to a shared bus of the switched network, at least one frame queue sized to store one multicast read frame received via the shared bus, and logic circuitry. The logic circuitry is configured to decode a read command for the interface module included in a payload of the multicast read frame that includes multiple read commands for other network nodes of the switched network, and transmit a response frame including read data on the shared bus when detecting the shared bus is available for transmitting.

A method for wirelessly transmitting data packets within a measuring system from multiple field devices to a superordinate unit via a wireless interface of the each device includes distributing the data packet to the field devices; synchronizing the wireless interfaces of the field devices such that the wireless interfaces transmit with a defined phase shift relative to one another in each particular case; and transmitting the data packet to the superordinate unit via the wireless interfaces of the at least two field devices in synchronized fashion. This allows the data packet to be received by the superordinate unit with increased transmission reliability according to the invention. This ensures the data transmission between one of the field devices and the superordinate unit without a repeater or other added complexity even when there are individual obstacles.

An industrial system for controlling backplane communication, including: a cluster manager including a primary switch linked to a primary control module, at least one Input/Output, I/O, module including a secondary switch linked to a secondary control module, a unidirectional communication line linking the cluster manager to the at least one IO module through passive base plates, wherein the cluster manager includes a transmission port and a reception port on the unidirectional communication line and the at least one Input/Output module includes a reception port on the unidirectional communication line, wherein the primary control module is configured to generate a pulse via the transmission port on the unidirectional communication line, wherein, upon reception of the pulse, the primary control module is configured to create a primary timestamp from a primary clock of the primary switch and the secondary control module is configured to create a secondary timestamp from a secondary clock of the secondary switch, wherein the primary control module is configured to send a message via the transmission port on the unidirectional communication line to the secondary control module, the message including the primary timestamp, wherein, upon reception of the message, the secondary control module is configured to synchronize the secondary clock with the primary clock based on the received primary timestamp and secondary timestamp.

An input/output station is provided. The input/output station is for a fieldbus system with a fieldbus coupler, which has a system bus interface and a fieldbus interface. The input/output station comprising a plurality of slots for pluggable input/output devices. One or more placeholder devices are also pluggable into the plurality of slots besides the input/output devices. An empty slot is also admissible for the plurality of slots. The fieldbus coupler comprises firmware which is configured for a full configuration of the input/output station. The firmware is configured to communicate with a control station in such a way that the fieldbus coupler receives the full configuration of the input/output station as a planned target configuration from the control station. The firmware is configured to confirm a full configuration of the input/output station in an operating mode irrespective of the actual occupancy of the input/output station.

The present invention suppresses the data size of a data frame to be transmitted to a control device at every control period even if oversampling is performed. A counter unit (10) compresses the data size of sampling data (Sd) indicating a second or subsequent count value (Ct) to the number of bits by which the maximum (Vmax) of a count value countable in one sampling processing can be represented.

Methods of synchronizing sequence numbers of a number of devices of a network are disclosed. A method may include incrementing, at each of a first device and a second device of a network, a sequence number, wherein the sequence number is indicative of a number of frames generated at the associated device since the timing event. The method may also include inserting, at each of the first device and the second device, the sequence number into an associated frame. Related networks and devices are also disclosed.

Systems and methods are described for a slave PHY device retransmitting a waking up command to a master PHY device in a low-power mode. After transmitting a wake-up command to the master PHY device, the slave PHY device starts a timer. If the timer reaches a threshold time, the slave device retransmits the wake-up command.