Method and system for polling communication devices in an industrial network system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12487953-B2
Application number	US-202318378846-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 11, 2023
Priority date	Oct 24, 2022
Publication date	Dec 2, 2025
Grant date	Dec 2, 2025

Abstract

For polling communication devices in a communication system including a host device and communication devices. The host device is connected to the communication devices via a clock line for transmitting a clock signal to the communication devices and via an arbitration line implemented with “OR” logic for receiving arbitration signal transmitted by the communication devices. Each communication device is configured to pull up or down the arbitration line for sending an arbitration signal when the communication device is ready to send data to the host device. Each communication device is configured to pull down the arbitration line for sending an arbitration signal when the communication device has no data to send to the host device. The host device (HD) is able to: send a clock signal on the clock line during an arbitration cycle, causing the communication devices to send respective arbitration signals towards the arbitration line, during the arbitration cycle, receive a final signal corresponding to an addition of the arbitration signals, during the arbitration cycle, resulting from the “OR” logic applied to the arbitration signals, detect the communication devices ready to send data based on the “1” bit of the final signal, select, among the detected communication devices, the communication device associated with the highest priority in a priority table containing the priorities associated with the communication devices, and poll the selected communication device to receive data from the selected communication device during a communication cycle.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method for polling communication devices in a communication system comprising a host device and the communication devices, wherein the host device is connected to the communication devices via a clock line for transmitting a clock signal to the communication devices and via an arbitration line implemented with “OR” logic for receiving arbitration signals transmitted by the communication devices, wherein each of the communication devices is configured to pull up or down the arbitration line for sending an arbitration signal when one of the communication devices is ready to send data to the host device, wherein each of the communication devices is configured to pull down the arbitration line for sending an arbitration signal when one of the communication devices has no data to send to the host device, the method comprises:
the host device sending a clock signal on the clock line during an arbitration cycle,
the communication devices sending respective arbitration signals towards the arbitration line in response to the clock signal on the clock line, during the arbitration cycle, the arbitration signals sent by the communication devices being added to each other on the arbitration line by the “OR” logic thereof to produce a final signal, the final signal having a sequence of bits, different bits in the sequence of bits corresponding to different communication devices, a “1” bit in the sequence of bits indicating that a corresponding communication device is ready to send data and a “ 0 ” bit indicating that the corresponding communication device is not ready to send data,
the host device receiving the final signal corresponding to the addition of the arbitration signals, during the arbitration cycle, resulting from the “OR” logic applied to the arbitration signals,
the host device detecting that the communication devices are ready to send data based on the “1” bits of the final signal,
the host device selecting, among the communication devices that were detected as ready to send data, the communication device associated with the highest priority in a priority table containing priorities associated with the communication devices, and
the host device polling the selected communication device to receive data from the selected communication device during a communication cycle.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the host device polls the detected communication devices in an order depending on priorities associated with said detected communication devices in the priority table.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the communication devices is configured to pull up the arbitration line during at least one clock period of the clock signal.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein each of the communication devices is associated with an address and the communication devices send respective arbitration signals towards the arbitration line according to their respective associated addresses.

5 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the communication devices are configured to pull up the arbitration line respectively during different clock periods of the clock signal.

6 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, with a computer program stored thereon, said computer program comprising instructions for, when executed by a processor, carrying out the method according to claim 1 .

7 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the addresses respectively associated with the communication devices have no “1” bit in common.

8 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the addresses respectively associated with the communication devices are incremented by at least two bits.

9 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein a communication device of the communication devices sends an arbitration signal according to its associated address, from the most significant bit to the least significant bit or from the least significant bit to the most significant bit.

10 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the addresses respectively associated with the communication devices correspond respectively to the numbers of arbitration clock periods of the clock signal.

11 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the host device detects a communication device of the communication devices from the final signal, if the position of the “1” bit of the final signal corresponds to the position of the “1” bit of the address associated with said communication device.

12 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the priority between the communication devices is based on the type of the communication devices.

13 . A host device for polling communication devices in a communication system comprising the host device and the communication devices, wherein the host device is connected to the communication devices via a clock line for transmitting a clock signal to the communication devices and via an arbitration line implemented with “OR” logic for receiving arbitration signals transmitted by the communication devices, wherein each of the communication devices is configured to pull up or down the arbitration line for sending an arbitration signal when one of the communication devices is ready to send data to the host device, wherein each of the communication devices is configured to pull down the arbitration line for sending an arbitration signal when one of the communication devices has no data to send to the host device, the host device comprising:
one or more network interfaces to communicate with the communication devices,
a processor coupled to the network interfaces and configured to execute one or more processes; and
a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed operable to:
send a clock signal on the clock line during an arbitration cycle, the communication devices sending respective arbitration signals towards the arbitration line in response to the clock signal on the clock line, during the arbitration cycle, the arbitration signals sent by the communication devices being added to each other on the arbitration line by the “OR” logic thereof to produce a final signal, the final signal having a sequence of bits, different bits in the sequence of bits corresponding to different ones of the communication devices, a “1” bit in the sequence of bits indicating that a corresponding communication device is ready to send data and a “0” bit indicating that the corresponding communication device is not ready to send data,
receive the final signal corresponding to the addition of the arbitration signals, during the arbitration cycle, resulting from the “OR” logic applied to the arbitration signals,
detect that the communication devices are ready to send data based on the “1” bits of the final signal,
select, among the communication devices that were detected as ready to send data, the communication device associated with the highest priority in a priority table containing the priorities associated with the communication devices, and
poll the selected communication device to receive data from the selected communication device during a communication cycle.

14 . A system comprising a host device according to claim 13 and a plurality of communication devices connected to the host device.

Assignees

• Schneider Electric Ind Sas

Inventors

• Fruchard Bertrand
• Wang Caijin

Classifications

• G06F13/225

  with priority control · CPC title

• G06F13/26 Primary

  with priority control · CPC title

• H04L12/403 Primary

  with centralised control, e.g. polling · CPC title