Method of autoconfiguration of communication network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12335103-B2
Application number	US-202318355815-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 20, 2023
Priority date	Jul 25, 2022
Publication date	Jun 17, 2025
Grant date	Jun 17, 2025

Abstract

A method for autoconfiguration of a plurality of nodes in a linear network allows extracting the address and position of each node. The nodes are identified by a unique identifier. The method comprises choosing a node in a network and extracting its identifier, and for the first node to the last but one node, transmitting a current in the network from the chosen node, and reading the direction of the current flowing through at least the nodes not chosen in previous iteration cycles. The identifier is linked with the direction of the current for said not chosen nodes, obtaining the position of said not chosen nodes relative to the chosen node. These steps are repeated by choosing a different node not chosen before. Autoconfiguration is finished when the identifier of each node is extracted, and the physical position of each node is determined.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of autoconfiguration of a plurality of nodes connected via a bus to form a linear network, each node being identified by an identifier that is unique for each node connected to the linear network in the plurality of nodes, the method comprising the steps of:
choosing a node in the linear network and extracting its identifier;
at least for a first node to the last but one node, transmitting a current in the linear network from the chosen node, and reading the direction of the current flowing through the bus through at least the nodes not chosen in any previous iteration;
subsequently linking the extracted identifier with the direction of the current for said not chosen nodes, and obtaining the position of said not chosen nodes relative to the chosen node;
repeating the three previous steps in an iteration cycle that comprises at least one iteration by choosing a different node not chosen before;
finishing the autoconfiguration when the identifier of each node is extracted and determining the physical position of each node in the linear network.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising collecting the extracted identifier of a node and linking the relative position of the node with respect of previously identified nodes during each iteration cycle, further sorting the identified node in the linear network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracted identifiers and information regarding directions can be stored in at least one node.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein determining the physical position is performed by the plurality of nodes, further comprising comparing the physical position obtained by at least two nodes.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising repeating the method if discrepancies are detected in the comparison.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein reading the direction of the current comprises reading the direction for the current flowing through each node of the plurality of nodes.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the current is performed also by the chosen node being the last node of the plurality of nodes.

8. An electronic device connectable to a linear network as a node, the node comprising an identifier, the node being programmed to execute the method of claim 1 .

9. The electronic device of claim 8 wherein the current is read through a shunt resistor shunting two contacts to the same line of the bus of the linear network.

10. The electronic device of claim 8 further comprising an integrated circuit as a programmable processing unit.

11. A linear network comprising a plurality of electronic devices of claim 8 wherein said electronic devices are nodes in the linear network.

12. The linear network of claim 11 wherein the linear network is a differential network.

13. The linear network of claim 11 wherein two or more electronic devices are programmed to carry out the method.

14. A system comprising the linear network of claim 11 further comprising a master node.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the system is a lighting system for a vehicle, wherein the electronic devices are configured to control lighting units.

Assignees

• Melexis Technologies Nv

Inventors

• Frost Raik
• Freitag Thomas
• Frey Michael
• Leutert Heiko

Classifications

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• B60Q3/80

  Circuits; Control arrangements (for dashboards B60Q3/16; for mass transit vehicles B60Q3/47) · CPC title

• H05B47/199

  Commissioning of light sources · CPC title

• G06F2213/0052

  Assignment of addresses or identifiers to the modules of a bus system · CPC title

• G06F13/4247

  on a daisy chain bus · CPC title