A plurality of management cards including an active card and a standby card are provided. The active card determines open or block of a ring port in accordance with an event based on a ring protocol, issues an open instruction or a block instruction to a line card, and notifies a block factor in addition to the block instruction when issuing the block instruction. The line card controls open or block of the ring port in accordance with the open instruction or the block instruction and retains open/block information of the ring port and a block factor of the block state in a port management table. When the standby card is changed to the active card in accordance with a predetermined change instruction, it acquires the information retained in the port management table from the line card.

This transmission network for transmitting information, of the type comprising at least two associated loops (2, 3) for transmitting information, in each of which functional nodes (4, 5) are integrated, each comprising at least one distribution module for distributing messages (6, 7) between the input and output ports of the node and at least one network interface module (8, 9) associated with this distribution module, is characterized in that the network interface modules (8, 9) of at least certain of the nodes of at least one of the loops (2, 3) are connected to the distribution modules (6, 7) for distributing the nodes of at least one other loop.

A protocol identifies and configures rings in a network topology automatically in order to simplify and quicken the actions that need to be performed in response to addition, deletion and shuffle of network nodes in that topology. Such rings do not need to be identified and configured manually. The protocol involves two separate sequentially performed phases. In the first phase, the protocol can automatically identify all rings that are present within a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) topology. In the second phase, the protocol can automatically configure each node of each such ring in conformity with the Ethernet Ring Protection (ERP) protocol. After this ERP configuration has been performed, the failure of a link within the network will not require every network node to re-learn paths through the network; instead, the nodes that are required to re-learn such paths can be limited to those within the particular ring that contained the failed link.

An automation network comprises at least one master subscriber, at least one switch, and at least one subscriber. The master subscriber comprises master ports, the switch comprises switching ports, and the subscriber comprises ports, each comprising a transmitter and a receiver. The master subscriber is configured to output first and second telegrams to first and second switching ports via first and second master ports and first and second master communication paths. The switch is configured to forward the first telegram to a first port of a subscriber via a first communication path, and to forward the second telegram to a second port of a subscriber via a second communication path. In error mode, the switch and the subscriber are configured to return the first telegram to the master subscriber via the first master port, and/or to return the second telegram to the master subscriber via the second master port.

A power conversion device includes a host device to control each submodule, and a plurality of repeating devices to relay communication between the host device and each submodule. The host device includes a command information generator to generate command information including an arm command, and a communication controller provided for each arm. Each of a plurality of communication controllers extracts, from the command information, an arm command associated with the communication controller, and transmits a communication frame including the extracted arm command to a repeating device that is connected to each submodule included in the arm associated with the communication controller.

A network communication system may include intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) in a dual-ring communication network. A software-defined network (SDN) device may be programmed by a removable or disconnectable SDN controller to control the flow path of data packets to the IEDs in the dual-ring network. A first ring of the dual-ring communication network may be dedicated to high priority data packets, and a second ring of the dual-ring communication network may be dedicated to low priority data packets. The SDN device may implement various levels of redundancy depending on the number and location of link failures detected. A first level of redundancy may direct high priority data packets in the opposite direction, and a second level of redundancy may direct high priority data packets onto the other ring normally used for low priority data packets.

A permutated ring network includes a plurality of bi-directional source-synchronous ring networks, each having a plurality of data transport stations, and a plurality of communication nodes. Each of the communication nodes is coupled to one of the data transport stations in each of the plurality of bi-directional source-synchronous ring networks.

Example data transmission methods and apparatus are disclosed. One example method includes receiving a first data packet. When a first ring node detects that a link between the first ring node and a second ring node on a first ring port is faulty, it is determined whether the received first data packet is a wrapped data packet. If the first data packet is a non-wrapped data packet, a second ring port is determined based on the first ring port, the first data packet is wrapped into a wrapped data packet to generate a second data packet, and the second data packet is forwarded through the second ring port.

A master device manages a plurality of slave devices constituting a network including a ring topology. The plurality of slave devices includes: a first slave device serving as a starting point and a terminal point of the ring topology; and a plurality of second slave devices connected between a first output port of the first slave device and a second output port thereof and constituting the ring topology. On the basis of a network configuration detected when the second output port and the output port of a second slave device paired with the second output port are available and of a network configuration detected when the second output port and the output port paired therewith have been made unavailable, the master device determines an incorrect wiring path between the first output port and the second output port and outputs information indicating the incorrect wiring path to an information processing device.

A high availability aircraft network architecture incorporating smart points of presence (SPoP) is disclosed. In embodiments, the network architecture divides the aircraft into districts, or physical subdivisions. Each district includes one or more mission systems (MS) smart network access point (SNAP) devices for connecting MS components and devices located within its district to the MS network. Similarly, each district includes one or more air vehicle systems (AVS) SNAP devices for connecting AVS components and devices within the district to the AVS network. The AVS network may remain in a star or hub-and-spoke topology, while the MS network may be configured in a ring or mesh topology. Selected MS and AVS SNAP devices may be connected to each other via guarded network bridges to securely interconnect the MS and AVS networks.