The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 09, 2016
Filed:
Jul. 30, 2014
Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc., Mayfield Heights, OH (US);
Jessica E. Forguites, Willoughby Hills, OH (US);
Sivaram Balasubramanian, Solon, OH (US);
Mark G. Devonshire, Chagrin Falls, OH (US);
Mark R. Hantel, Medina, OH (US);
Rockwell Automation Technologies, Inc., Mayfield Heights, OH (US);
Abstract
Aspects of the present invention provide a ring supervisor operating as a server for maintaining and allocating addresses for devices in a ring topology. The ring supervisor may obtain an ordered list of devices in the ring by sending a data collection frame that passes through each device around the ring with each device appending its preconfigured address information. The ring supervisor may then operate to apply the addressing provided by each device, or alternatively, allocate different addresses to each device from a separate pool. As a result, control program software for ring devices can be developed using a general pool of addresses without requiring specific knowledge of actual addresses. Also, if a device requires replacement, the device may be replaced without requiring modification to the control program to provide the address for the replacement device.