Patent ID: 7487938

Claim:
A passenger flight information system, comprising: head-end equipment; at least one area distribution box having a plurality of switch ports; and a plurality of seat electronics boxes, arranged in groups such that each of a plurality of said groups is coupled to a respective switch port of a respective area distribution box and serviced by that respective area distribution box; the head-end equipment, area distribution box and seat electronics boxes being adapted to operate to perform an addressing process to assign respective Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to respective components associated with the head-end equipment, area distribution box and seat electronics boxes by which the respective components are identified in the passenger flight information system, at least one of the components associated with a seat electronics box being a smart video display unit that includes a processor which enables the smart video display unit to perform its own tasks and decision making; and during the addressing process, the area distribution box disconnects all of its said switch ports to isolate itself, and then sequentially opens one of said switch ports at a time to send sequencing start messages to the group of seat electronics boxes coupled to the switch port that is opened.