General Electric Company

John L Schroeder

Randy Lynn Walter

Courtney L Albers

Gerald W Vanbaren

Donald G Hodges

A computing network uses Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) to divide the time on a bus into a plurality of frames, each frame having a plurality of time slots. Each time slot is assigned no more than one of the plurality of devices within a collision domain, the assignments indicating the identity of the device permitted to transmit packets onto the network during the assigned time slot. A bus cadence unit simultaneously sends an epoch packet initiating the frame. The epoch packet contains a time slot assignment table containing the time slot assignments, the device identification, as well as a time slot offset and duration. Each device on the network is configured to measure a frame interval between repeating epoch packets. The measured frame interval is further processed in each receiving node to obtain a calibrated frame interval. The calibrated frame interval is used to accurately synchronize transmissions of data from the various devices onto the network. A time slot protocol governor in each node controls access to the bus to only the assigned time slot or slots using the calibrated frame interval to reduce or eliminate synchronization errors.

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Byron Center, MI, United States of America

John L Schroeder