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.

Provided is a management device that assists setting of ring topology in a network configuration of actual devices. A management device 3 is a management device that manages a network including a master device 1 and a plurality of slave devices 2 connected to the master device 1, and is provided with: an actual configuration information acquisition unit 332 that acquires, from the master device 1, actual configuration information D3 of an actual network; and a ring topology detection unit 333 that, on the basis of the actual configuration information D3, detects ring topology constituted of the plurality of slave devices 2, and identifiably displays the ring topology on an actual network configuration diagram that is displayed on the basis of the actual configuration information D3.

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.