Patent ID: 8194533

Claim:
A data bus node, being a control node or a sensor node and being arranged to communicate over a TDMA data bus, the data bus node comprising: a time signal processing device being configured to define a TDMA time slot transmission schedule for at least said data bus node, a switch being configured to either connect or isolate a transmission path of said data bus node to the bus and configured to be controlled by said TDMA time slot transmission schedule for said data bus node via a bus transmission access control device, at least one external data transmission link that is physically separated from said bus, wherein said bus transmission access control device is configured to be further controlled by at least one control signal originating external to said data bus node via said at least one external data transmission link, and a logical device configured to: receive and process at least two input control signals from a plurality of nodes associated with the bus via said external data transmission link/s, and issue a control signal, being a function of said received at least two input control signals, to the bus transmission access control device.