Patent ID: 8345539

Claim:
A system, comprising a plurality of subscribers and a higher-order unit, for addressing the subscribers that are redundant in respect of each other in a communication network, wherein the subscribers are each permanently assigned a unique physical address in the communication network such that each unique physical address is different for each subscriber, the subscribers forming a group such that the subscribers in the group are redundant in respect to each other, wherein the group of subscribers is assigned a unique group address in the communication network such that the unique group address is only activate for one of the subscribers in the group and de-active for each of the remaining subscribers in the group, wherein the at least one higher-order unit is provided to activate the unique group address for the one of the subscribers in the group via the unique physical address permanently assigned to the one of the subscribers in the group and to deactivate the unique group address for each of the remaining subscribers in the group via the unique physical address permanently assigned to each of the remaining subscriber, wherein each subscriber is addressable individually via its respective unique physical address, and wherein the subscribers are addressable as a group via the unique group address.