Patent ID: 7433302
Filing Date: 2008-10-07
Classification: H04L,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A daisy chain local area network employing Category 5 (Cat 5) cabling for connecting network devices, the local area network providing communications over two twisted wire pairs (the “normally used” twisted wire pairs) of the Cat 5 cabling connecting the network devices, leaving two twisted wire pairs of the Cat 5 cabling unused (the “normally unused” twisted wire pairs), the daisy chain local area network comprising: a plurality of network devices connected in a daisy chain configuration between first and second terminal network devices, the first and second terminal network devices being network devices at the two ends of the daisy chain of network devices, each adjacent pair of network devices and terminal network devices being connected by a single Cat 5 cable, each of the plurality of network devices comprising: a loop back connection coupled to each of the first and second terminal network devices, the loop back connection being operative to electrically connect the normally used twisted wire pairs to the normally unused twisted wire pairs of the Cat 5 cable connected to the respective first and second terminal network devices, wherein the passive signal paths through the plurality of network devices and the loop back connections of the first and second terminal network devices form a redundancy loop in the local area network and a Spanning Tree Protocol is implemented in each of the plurality of network devices and the first and second terminal network devices for defining an active signal path through the local area network.