Method and apparatus for determining an address uniquely identifying a hardware component on a common bus

Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed for automatically determining system configuration information, including the sector, carrier frequency and bus assignment of each hardware component installed on equipment, such as a cell station. In an illustrative cell station implementation, each cell station includes a hardware controller that communicates on a common bus with a plurality of hardware components. When each cell station is powered up or reset, each hardware component reads an identification value (or a portion thereof) that has some physical significance from a backplane on which the hardware component is installed. The identification information obtained from the backplane is used to derive a bus address that uniquely identifies each hardware component on the common bus. In addition, the identification information contains information that describes the hardware component and how the component is located within the cell station. In the illustrative embodiment, the identification value identifies the carrier frequency, frame, sector number (such as &agr;, &bgr;, &ggr;), unit type and unit number associated with the hardware component. The hardware component can provide information to the hardware controller that allows the hardware controller to generate a map of the hardware components located within the cell and determine their interconnection.