Patent ID: 7984117

Claim:
A slave device connected to a master device via a predetermined network, the slave device comprising: a reception unit configured to receive a predetermined command from the master device and to transmit the received command to a next slave device; a transmission unit for transmitting a response to the received command directly to the master device or for transmitting the response to the master device via the next slave device; a message production unit configured to produce information concerning the response to the received command, wherein the response is transmitted to the master device; an input/output unit for outputting a predetermined signal if the received command represents that the signal is output via an output terminal, or for receiving an external signal in order to provide the master device information relating to a connection between a slave device that outputs the signal and a slave device that inputs the signal; and a dynamic ID management unit configured to generate an arbitrary number to produce an ID and to provide the ID to the message production unit if the received command represents ID information transmission, wherein the reception unit includes a first reception terminal connected to a transmission terminal of the master device and a second reception terminal connected to a reception terminal of the next slave device, wherein the first and second reception terminals are connected to each other so that a signal received from the master device is transmitted to the next slave device via the second reception terminal, and wherein the transmission unit includes a first transmission terminal connected to at least one of the master device and a previous slave device and a second transmission terminal connected to the next slave device, wherein the first and second transmission terminals are connected to each other and the second transmission terminal is connected to a transmission terminal of the next slave device so that a signal received from the transmission terminal of the next slave device is transmitted to the master device or to the previous slave device via the first transmission terminal, but is not processed by the slave device including the second transmission terminal.