Patent ID: 9413609
Filing Date: 2016-08-09
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method for transmitting messages in a redundantly operable industrial communication network, comprising: transmitting messages in a first subnetwork with a tree topology in accordance with a spanning tree protocol, communication devices associated with network nodes of the first subnetwork interchanging messages containing topology information with one another to form a tree topology, a root network node being determined as a basic element of the tree topology by the communication devices associated with the network nodes of the first subnetwork based on the interchanged topology information, and loop-free connections being set up from the root network node to remaining network nodes of the first subnetwork; transmitting messages in a second subnetwork of the industrial communication network in accordance with a parallel or ring redundancy protocol in accordance with one of (i) International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 62439-3, clause 4, (ii) high-availability seamless redundancy protocol in accordance with IEC 62439-3, clause 5 and (iii) media redundancy protocol in accordance with IEC 62439; coupling the first and second subnetworks to one another via a plurality of communication devices; interchanging, by communication devices associated with network nodes of the second subnetwork, messages containing topology information for the first subnetwork with one another in accordance with the parallel or ring redundancy protocol, comparing said messages with locally available topology information for the first subnetwork, and determining resultant topology information for the first subnetwork based on a comparison result; wherein the communication devices associated with the network nodes of the second subnetwork utilize the determined resultant topology information for the first subnetwork to adapt their configuration with respect to at least one of closed connections to the first subnetwork and open connections to the first subnetwork; wherein the resultant topology information for the first subnetwork is consistently determined by all communication devices associated with the network nodes of the second subnetwork; wherein the communication devices associated with the network nodes of the second subnetwork provide consistent resultant topology information for utilization by the spanning tree protocol in the first subnetwork; and wherein error handling is implemented in a subnetwork directly affected by an error or a fault based on a communication protocol implemented in the directly affected subnetwork without affecting another subnetwork.