Patent ID: 7716738
Filing Date: 2010-05-11
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A system, comprising: a hub comprising a transceiver; a plurality of communication nodes connected by a data link to the transceiver by a common bus or a wireless broadcast channel, the data link being a shared data link whereby any node connected to the data link has access to communications broadcast over the common bus or wireless broadcast channel; and a communication controller configured to allocate link-level addresses to the communication nodes, wherein the communication nodes may be identified for communications over the common bus or wireless broadcast channel, wherein the communication controller is further configured to change from time to time the link-level addresses allocated to all of the plurality of communication nodes connected to the common bus or wireless broadcast channel and to transmit the newly allocated link-level addresses to respective communication nodes in an encrypted form over the common bus or wireless broadcast channel, wherein the system comprises a data distribution unit connected between the data link and at least one external data source, and wherein the data distribution unit is configured to forward data from the data source to the communication nodes via the data link, wherein the data distribution unit is further configured to forward the data to the plurality of communication nodes in a random or pseudo-random order over the common bus or wireless broadcast channel; wherein the data link is an Ethernet link, and wherein the link-level addresses are Ethernet PHY ID addresses.