Patent ID: 8565238

Claim:
An industrial network system comprising: a host computer including a display unit, an information input unit, and software; a central communication unit including a host computer interface unit, a first I/O data storing unit, a second I/O data storing unit, an identification number storing unit, a communication cycle data storing unit, at least one communication port, at least two fifo type storing units per one communication port and a central communication control unit; and a plurality of terminal communication units each including one upstream communication port, at least two downstream communication ports, at least two fifo type storing units per one downstream communication port, at least one I/O port, a terminal communication control unit, an identification number storing unit, a priority order number storing unit, and a communication cycle information storing unit, wherein: the upstream communication ports of the terminal communication units are connected to the at least one communication port in the central communication unit or to a downstream communication port of any other terminal communication unit in the plurality of terminal communication units; the central communication unit sends to the terminal communication units individual values of communication cycles required for every control object that is stored in the communication cycle information storing unit from the host computer; each terminal communication unit stores the received individual value based on the communication cycle in the communication cycle information storing unit and transfers output data at a cycle based on a value sent to the respective terminal communication unit; the central communication unit causes to store an input value of the I/O port received from each terminal communication unit in a first input data storing unit, and causes to store the input value in the first input data storing unit in a second input data storing unit based on the communication cycle in the communication cycle information storing unit; and the host computer confirms values of the I/O ports of the respective terminal communication units with reference to the second input data storing unit of the central communication unit.