Patent ID: 9198257
Filing Date: 2015-11-24
Classification: H04L,H05B

Abstract:
1. A method of retrieving status information of a lighting system, the lighting system comprising a plurality of LED-based lighting units arranged as nodes in a linear daisy-chained network, the network having network segments connecting two subsequent nodes downstream of a controller via an upstream transceiver and a downstream transceiver of the network segment, the method comprising: propagating a command signal from the controller to a node of the lighting system by operating the upstream transceivers of the network segments that are upstream of the node in a transmitting mode and operating each of the downstream transceivers of the network segments that are upstream of the node in a receiving mode; propagating a reply signal comprising the status information of the LED unit of the node from the node to the controller by operating the upstream transceivers of the network segments that are upstream of the node in a receiving mode and operating each of the downstream transceivers of the network segments upstream of the node in a transmitting mode; and reversing an operating mode of an upstream transceiver of a network segment from operating in a transmitting mode to operating in a receiving mode only when the downstream transceiver of the network segment is operating in transmitting mode.